


divine intervention

by yoongiinthecity



Category: Day6 (Band), GOT7, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Angst, College AU, Existential kind of Angst for the most part, F/M, I AM YOUR DESTINY AU, Kim Taehyung | V-centric, M/M, Namjoon is god, Philosophical Taehyung, Photography Major Jeon Jungkook, Slow Burn, Slow Update because of school i cry, Sort of Soulmate AU, Surprise Relationships I hope haha, if you're into that, loosely based on a j-drama, taehyung has to fight for jeongguk's love, taekook, vkook
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-02-25 19:23:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 31,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13219539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoongiinthecity/pseuds/yoongiinthecity
Summary: “Taehyung, the world is in danger.”“Is this the part where you tell me that I’m actually not fully human? Or that I’m not at all? Because that would be so cool.”“Taehyung,” God interrupted. “No, you are very much a mundane human, okay?”“If you put it that way, it’s sad.”“Not as sad as the world ending, Taehyung.”“True… wait, what? The world is ending?! Oh my God, don’t you dare prank me on this! I prepared for the end of the world when they said 2012 was going to be it and I almost donated everything to—”“Tae, SHUT UP. Please.”Or in which Taekook are soulmates but Fate messed up and now Taehyung has to make his soulmate fall in love with him or else the world ends.





	1. 01. Sunday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung gets drunk and Minjae is a sweetheart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything. This fic is loosely based on the 2017 Japanese drama titled 'Boku, Unmei no Hito desu' or 'I am Your Destiny'. I own probably that one female character appearing in this story, and I guess that's it. You can check out the drama if you like  
>  
> 
> :3

01.

**Sunday**

Taehyung did not have the best luck in dating.

But it really wasn’t that bad. He had scored a few hot guys and girls who were more than willing to be associated with him, yet the problem was that they were never really willing to let their relationship progress for the long term. In other words, Taehyung found himself having to face break-ups more than twice a year. The worse thing about it was that he was always the one getting dumped, and always the one confused and wondering about what went wrong in the relationship.

He wasn’t sore about the fact that he was always the dumpee. If he was being honest with himself, he was quite used to it (as sad as it sounds). What he was sore about was the fact that he failed to hold a long and meaningful relationship every time he got together with someone. The prospect of  _finally_ having just that vanished entirely when he was dumped by his latest boyfriend—whom Taehyung was dating for almost a year. The longest he’s ever been in a relationship.

So you could imagine the scenario: Taehyung with a bottle of soju in hand with his dear old friend Minjae by his side, getting ready to pick the bottle just in case it slipped off Taehyung’s hand. Taehyung had been shouting and enthusiastically expressing his distaste about the whole situation and all Minjae could do was pat him on the back, and nod along to everything Taehyung was spurting on about.

Taehyung had invited Minjae over at his apartment, demanding that he bring as many bottles of liquor he could carry, and the moment the younger stepped into his apartment (he knocked, and hit the buzzer, but no one answered, luckily the door was unlocked), he found his hyung already on his way drunk on his sofa with beer cans littering the carpeted floor.

(Minjae had inwardly sighed in relief. He and Taehyung had bought the carpet together the first time he moved in, and he was strongly against his hyung buying a white carpet. He didn’t really want to end up helping Taehyung clean it up again when a stray cat once came into Taehyung’s apartment and barfed on the carpet. He didn’t really want that to happen again—the cleaning especially.)

Taehyung had greeted him by jumping on him and telling him about his architect ex-boyfriend (the one with the foot fetish), being an asshole during their date earlier that day.

(“No, it wasn’t a date because he wanted to meet up with me just to tell me I didn’t have pretty enough feet and that he wanted to break up with me!”

And then he proceeded to take his socks off to show off his feet. “Look at it, Minjae! Just take a good long look and tell me, straight in the eye, that you haven’t seen the sexiest feet you ever saw in your life!” He waved his feet on front of Minjae’s face, who backed out a little. Taehyung had began clapping his feet together like a child, and Minjae almost wanted to take a video. It was pretty good blackmail material.

But Minjae had to admit, Taehyung  _did_ have pretty feet.)

“Gah!” Taehyung cried after taking another mouthful of soju. A new bottle or can always seemed to find its way to his hand, and he wasn’t really complaining about it. (It was a way of avoiding any further scuffle and Minjae had witnessed enough drunk Taehyung to know the what-to-do’s and what-not-to-do’s).

“Minjae-ah,” he said, heavily patting the younger on the shoulder. “You’ve known me all my life, haven’t you?”

“Sure I have, hyung. We grew up together, after all,” Minjae said patiently. Really, the best way in dealing with a drunk Taehyung was patience, a whole shit load of patience.

“Yes!” Taehyung laughed, taking another sip. “And being the person who has seen me in my disgustingly worse moments in my life—” Taehyung was stretching his arms out while he spoke, and the bottle almost slipped from his palm. Luckily, Minjae was there to save the carpet from ruin.

“Careful, hyung, you’ll drop your bottle,” Minjae said, finally taking the bottle from his hyung. If he paid more attention to the bottle in Taehyung’s hand than on the words he was saying, it was going to cause another outburst from drunk Taehyung.

“You’re so kind to me, Minjae. If you weren’t straight I’d totally date you,” Taehyung said affectionately, letting his upper body leaned against the younger’s.

“What did you want to ask me, hyung?” Minjae smiled, patting his hyung’s head like a good boy. Taeyung  _giggled._

“You think I’m attractive right? Even with your hetero-objective point of view?” Taehyung asked, his tone was still childish, but the way he said it was heavy and serious.

Minjae sighed. Drunk Taehyung was always bipolar. So happy and annoying the first second and the next a depressed piece of goo. He just nodded and continued caressing the older’s hair, aware of how much he liked it.

“Yes, hyung.”

Taehyung pouted. “But am I not desirable enough? Like, am I attractive enough to make straight guys give a double take? Or is it just me? Maybe I’m just too weird? I mean, that can be the only explanation why I get dumped all the time.”

“Hyung, you’re not too weird. You’re perfect just the way you are and if nobody can see that then it’s not worth dating them. Don’t you listen to what your exes say, okay?”

“Aww,” Taehyung reached to pinch Minjae’s nose. “You’re so corny, Jae-jae.” Taehyung snuggled closer to Minjae’s chest. “I’m getting old, Minjae, I don’t want to end up fifty and unmarried! You know how I always wanted to get married young and have a big family, a big house, I want to watch my kids grow and sigh when they hit their rebel phase. I want to send them off to college, to walk my children to the altar. I want someone to watch sunsets with me, and do all that weird couple-y shit there is to do.” His tone had taken a darker turn, and this was finally drunk Taehyung descending into that irretrievable dark pit.

Minjae mentally prepared himself. Drunk Taehyung was always, always so hard on himself, even borderline, self-loathing, and Minjae’s energy was mostly spent on trying to brighten up his hyung since it was at moments like this where Taehyung spilled the darkest and the most disturbing things he kept within himself. (Minjae supposes that Drunk Taehyung was a blessing in disguise. Taehyung almost never confided in anyone sober about his problems, and it was borderline frustrating.)

 “I just want to be loved, Minjae, is that too hard to ask?” Taehyung wrapped his arms around Minjae’s torso and kept silent. Minjae just ran a hand through the older’s hair, wondered if the older fell asleep, but was surprised to hear a snob and a sudden wet patch forming on his shirt.

Minjae was aware of how much Taehyung took a liking to the architect guy—despite his odd fetish—and he knew he was seriously considering the other guy as a partner in life the moment they reached their sixth month together.

“Hyung, it’s not too hard to love you, I swear. I guess you just need to find the right person, and I know it might be taking a while, but you do have to crack a few shells to make an omelette.”

Taehyung’s voice was muffled. “I really liked him, Jae-jae, even if Jihan was an asshole sometimes. And I really thought this was it! I mean almost a year! A YEAR! He put up with me for  _almost a year_ , Jae. If that’s not love then what is?” Taehyung cried.

Minjae pulled his hyung to a hug, and let him sob on his shirt, not really caring if he got it all wet and sticky with snot. He was used to it, after all.

“And to think he broke up with me because of my  _feet_  is just proof that he never took anything we had seriously!”

“Hyung. I guarantee you that you won’t end up fifty and alone. There’s someone out there for you, and when you do, they’ll take ALL of you in.”

This only caused Taehyung to cry a little more, clutching tighter on Minjae’s shirt. Minjae only hushed him, soothing back with his hand and whispering small reassertions to his hyung until he calmed down.

“Thanks, Jae-jae,” Taehyung said against the younger’s chest, after almost half an hour. “I’m sorry you have to see this again.”

“It’s fine, hyung. Are you tired? Do you want to sleep?”

Taehyung had detached himself out of Minjae’s arms. He eyed the soju bottle which had a considerable amount still and shook his head. “I’m a little hungry though.”

Minjae laughed. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the hyung between the two of us.” He stood up to take his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll step out a bit and see if there’s still a place open, you think you can handle yourself until then?”

Taehyung nodded. “Don’t worry. I think I’m a little better right now. Still feel numb though.”

The younger just smiled as he disappeared into the kitchen and brought back a glass of water. “I’ll be back hyung, text me if you need anything else, okay?”

The older just smiled and watched the younger leave the apartment.

He was left alone with that soju bottle staring suggestively at him, and Taehyung battled with himself whether or not he should just drink the last of it. He sighed and felt a renewed batch of tears welling up, and he threw himself back on the couch, his forearms flying to his eyes in an attempt to stop them.

He was unsuccessful though, and the tears continued trickling down.

Really, no matter how much soju bottles he emptied wouldn’t change the fact that he was alone and was probably going to be alone for a long while. What was the point anyway? Not the whole getting drunk thing, Taehyung had longed embraced the pleasurable futility of drinking away sorrows and pain. What he was beginning to think of as futile was the whole dating thing.

He’s had more partners in his life more than he can count his fingers. (And it sounded awfully promiscuous but he hadn’t had sex with all of them. His shortest relationship was with a girl in college named Lisa. She was a foreigner and she had been lonely her first weeks in Seoul. She broke it off after a month when she got too homesick and decided to go back to Thailand. She didn’t think they were ready for a long-distance relationship, and Taehyung had agreed anyway. And the farthest they got was heavy make-outs on Lisa’s bed with too much hand action going on.)

And Jihan was the longest to date. The mere thought just caused Taehyung to cry harder. Jihan was a handsome guy he met at some bar. They started off like that: exchanging flirtatious remarks and buying each other drinks until the other offered to get out of the place and proved to be more than a good fuck to let slip.

He had been sweet to him most of the time, and admittedly an asshole who cared more of his career. But Taehyung had respected that. They were still at the age where they had to find a source of stability, and Taehyung was a fool enough to believe that Jihan had been focusing on his job because he was saving up on their future. Unfortunately, while Taehyung was already daydreaming about two-storey houses, two kids, and a dog, Jihan was already beginning to tire of him.

He just wasn’t good enough and it was a truth not even Minjae had the courage to tell him. Taehyung knew that much. Maybe he should just give up on the whole dating scene and adopt cats and maybe his own kid someday. But hell, if he can’t make the people he dated love him, how can he expect the same from a child?

“Pathetic, just pathetic,” Taehyung sobbed. And there was no one inside the apartment to tell him otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And this is going to be one of those attempts at chaptered fics because I haven't done that in a while, and I kinda miss the thrill of it, and also because I want to finish something before I go to school again (because I probably won't be posting for another five months huhu). We can do this! Let me know what you think, and I hope you give it a kudos or what not~ I'm not promising to update frequently though. 
> 
> Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2018 will treat you all better!
> 
> Haha :3


	2. 02. Sunday-Monday: Midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung meets God.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited significantly :3

**Sunday – Monday: Midnight**

He hadn’t expected to fall asleep. But then again, the amount of crying he’d been partaking in eventually tired him out. When he opened his eyes, Taehyung had expected to see sunlight, only to see that it was still dark and the lone lamp by the coffee table was on. He shifted and realized that there was a blanket draped all over him, the cans and bottles that he had previously emptied into his stomach were no longer littering his small living room. Instead, on the coffee table was a note, a water bottle and a bottle of painkillers.

_Bought chicken but you were already asleep when I got back. Anyway, it’s in the refrigerator. Just warm it up for breakfast. Don’t come to work, I’ll cover for you. Minjae : >_

Taehyung was ambivalent. Although he wasn’t really lucky at romance, he did win the lottery at friends. He had never been so thankful for having Minjae around, and he felt guilty for being just a dragging friend who needed to be taken care of most of the time. (He still took a mental note to treat the guy to dinner or something. It was the least he could do, anyway.)

Foregoing the pills, since he believed he deserved the hangover come morning, he took the water bottle and emptied it in two gulps, suddenly aware of how itchy and scratchy his throat felt like.

“You sure have a good friend there, Tae. He even washed the dishes.”

Taehyung jumped, spilling some water onto himself as he stared wide-eyed at the man who was suddenly standing on front of him. He was a tall man, wearing an all-black ensemble and stared back at Taehyung with his cat like eyes.

“And you kind of almost puked in your sleep,” the mysterious man added, and all Taehyung could do was stare. “What?”

Having the situation sink in, Taehyung almost screamed if it weren’t for the man’s quick movements. He covered Taehyung’s mouth and looked at him with an unamused expression. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Taehyung had no idea where his phone was, or which hardest object was closest to him but he did the only thing he could think of at the moment.

“Fuc—did you just lick me?!” the man instantly jumped away, looking at his hand in disgust as he wiped it on his shirt.

“Don’t come near me!” Taehyung warned, deciding to grab the lamp instead and in the process almost breaking it in his haste. He had instantly sprung from the couch in a defensive position. “How did you get in here? Who are you?”

“There’s no need to be hostile, Taehyung. I won’t hurt you,” the man said, lifting his hands in surrender. “I’m unarmed, see?”

Taehyung did a once-over and gasped.

“YOU HAVE YOUR SHOES ON!” Taehyung shouted seeing that indeed, the man was inside his home, WITH HIS SHOES ON.

“My shoes are clean,” the man said, lifting his leg to show him his soles. “It’s not that I walk around to get to places anyway.”

“I’m calling the police!” Taehyung said.

“And how would you do that without your phone?” the man asked as a matter-of-factly.

“I have a landline, thank you very much.”

“Still, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“And why shouldn’t I?”

“Because they’ll brush you off as a drunkard claiming to see things that isn’t really there. It’s pointless and if you want to see for yourself then go ahead and call.”

Taehyung stared at the mysterious man for a moment. He didn’t want to admit it, but despite being a little sober, he knew there was still some alcohol in his system, and if the dizziness he was feeling was anything to go buy, he was already feeling the hangover. (And he didn’t really want to seem like a fool. He was already an idiot for caring so much for a guy like Jihan, he wasn’t going to make himself a fool in front of the police.)

The man had long put his hands down and into his pockets as he eyed Taehyung’s CD collection in attempt to avoiding his eyes (which wasn’t much, just albums from a few idol groups, collections of jazz music, and even a few mixtapes he bought at indie music festivals when he was in college), and only turned to him when Taehyung sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging.

“Okay…what do you want? No, who are you?” Taehyung asked, trying to side-step to the kitchen slowly to grab a knife.

“I’m actually here to help you, Taehyung. What are you doing?”

“How do you expect me to react?! You came out of nowhere!” Taehyung was still looking for the knife. Damn it, Minjae cleaned the kitchen and rearranged the stuff.

“Well, it was worth seeing your reaction, anyway,” the man smirked, revealing the deep set of dimples he sported. When Taehyung kept his stance, the man sighed again. “Fine. If I told you I was God, you’re not really going to believe me, are you?”

“Of course not! I’m pretty sure the Christian God isn’t really Korean.”

“And you’re telling me he’s white then?”

“God no. At best he’s Jewish…or something…just not Caucasian.”

“Well I am appearing to you as best that I can without shocking you. Imagine God in His pure form!” The man—God?—chuckled.

“Good work on the shocking part, I’m sure appearing in my apartment out of nowhere and unannounced has achieved that,” Taehyung glared, finally finding the knife (and letting out a victorious _a-ha_!) and keeping it at chest level. (At least, to his chest level, the other man was  _tall._ )

The man gave him an incredulous look as he eyed the butter knife Taehyung held in self-defense. “Look, I’m telling you the truth and it’s up to you to believe me or not.”

“That doesn’t actually sound better? I mean, why would God appear in my apartment in the first place, looking like a Korean man, wearing all black? I mean, shouldn’t you be wearing white? And where’s the angels? The loud glowing light?”

The man groaned in annoyance. “Taehyung, my wardrobe isn’t important here. We have to talk about you.”

“And what’s wrong with the way I dress?” Taehyung asked, giving his maroon dress shirt (it was wrinkled to oblivion) and his loose black slacks. He was still wearing his socks (forest green with little Santa faces. It wasn’t too early celebrate Christmas after all.)

The other man looked like he was about to lose it. But he just rubbed his face and sighed deeply. “Taehyung, seriously. The world is in danger here.”

“Is this the part where you tell me that I’m actually not fully human? Or that I’m not at all? Because that would be so cool.”

“Taehyung,” the man—God (?) interrupted. “No, you are very much a mundane human, okay?”

“If you put it that way, it’s sad.”

“Not as sad as the world ending, Taehyung.”

“The world is ending? That’s not some prank is it? The last time I was told the world was ending I nearly donated everything to—”

“Tae, SHUT UP. Please.”

“No offense, God-ssi,” Taehyung said, putting the butter knife on the counter, his arm suddenly feeling numb. “But I’m still not convinced whether or not I should call the cops.”

“I told you, it’s your decision to believe it or not. But hear me out, will you? I know I appeared out of nowhere, but my sudden entrance calls for urgency. I wouldn’t be here unless it was really, really, _really_ , important.”

“How’d you get into my apartment anyway?”

“The door was unlocked.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Then why did you fucking ask?”

“Shouldn’t holy celestial beings avoid cursing?”

“Are you always this difficult?”

“I don’t know. I’m still drunk, really. I swear I’m much easier to deal with sober.”

God-ssi sighed for the nth time. “Fine then. Since there’s no point in talking to you in this state, we’re going to have to talk in the morning.”

“What? Why?”

“Because, Taehyung, although this cannot wait you are being really stubborn right now and I don’t have the patience for this.”

“It isn’t my fault you decided to show up unannounced. You should’ve sent me an email or something. I mean doesn’t Heaven have any internet connection or computers? Shouldn’t God have some weird way in communicating? I mean no weird dreams? No three wise men coming to warn me?”

“Now you’re just being sardonic.”

“Believe me, I have no ill intention. I just can’t believe I’m talking to God right now. And you can’t blame me for having a philosophical disposition. I live to become stubborn about stuff.”

“Fine then. Let’s see if your ‘philosophical disposition’ is less a pain in the ass in the morning.”

“Philosophy is always a pain.”

“Yeah, but apparently your ‘philosophical disposition’ didn’t really help you in helping your love life now, did it?”

“And now you’re just being sardonic.”

“Trust me, I’m much more lenient when I’m not irritated.”

Taehyung pouted. “That’s not fair. God isn’t supposed to be like that.”

“Then why don’t you make this easier for me and just go to bed?”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“I think I prefer you panicking and holding a knife at me.”

“I think I prefer to wake up now. This dream is getting boring.”

“Would you like me to pinch you?” God-ssi asked in mock concern. “I’ll see you in the morning, Tae.”

Taehyung was about to say something else, already enjoying the nonsensical bickering they were having (and that shouldn’t sound right considering that the man who claiming he was God could potentially be a really unorthodox con artist but well, how often do you meet people like that anyway?) but then the man clicked his fingers and the last thing he remembers is crashing on the kitchen floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just going to say here that I don't intend to insult or offend anyone by the way I've written God in this fic. I just tried to appropriate Namjoon's character into it, I guess. But really, I don't intend to make fun of God or any religion for that matter.
> 
> :3


	3. 03. Monday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung finds out he has a soulmate.

03.

**Monday**

The second time he wakes up, Taehyung is in his bed and still in his clothes from yesterday. He had no idea how he got there but just assumed that it was one of Minjae’s good deeds that Taehyung will unconsciously berate himself over. He rubbed his face and assessed his memory, raking whatever he managed to remember. There was the break-up itself (couldn’t forget that now, could we?), the almost-fight he and Jihan had, the drinking, the inviting Minjae over, the crying, and then the thief who called himself God.

Taehyung froze, sat up straighter. There was a man in his apartment last night claiming he was God, and that he had something to talk to Taehyung about.

“Holy shit,” Taehyung lamented. “I drank way too much last night.”

That was the only explanation for that bizarre scene. It was perhaps a vivid dream induced by the soju he had drank. Laughing at himself and the prospect of Minjae’s reaction when he tells him about it, he stumbled out of his bed and immediately took a shower. He wasn’t feeling as hungover as he expected he’d be, but who was he to complain anyway? Changing into more comfortable clothes, Taehyung stepped into the living room only to find there was humming from the kitchen.

Taehyung lived in a small apartment where the living room and the kitchen were in the same room, only separated by a counter. Taehyung froze and glanced carefully to his left where the kitchen was and almost screamed when he saw the man from his dream (not so anymore apparently) in his kitchen, handling his wares and singing to a K-pop girl group song.

“OH MY GOD,” Taehyung exclaimed. “It wasn’t a dream,” he said to himself, fully realizing the situation. He had let a man inside his apartment.

“Good morning to you too, sleeping beauty. Breakfast?” God-ssi greeted, lifting the pot and angling it so Taehyung could see two sunny-side up eggs sizzling. They were too cooked for Taehyung’s taste. He liked his eggs a little runny.

“This is real,” Taehyung said, staring blatantly at the man from his place inside the living room. “You’re really God.”

“So you believe me now?” God-ssi raised an amused eyebrow at him. “If you remember anything you said to me last night, you’d be surprised how doubtful you are.”

“It’s still doubtful. How the hell can you be God?”

God-ssi opted not to answer him, instead turning the stove off and placing the two (overcooked) eggs into two separate plates. Taehyung could see that the man had whipped a very Korean breakfast of kimchi fried rice, with the chicken Minjae had bought last night, some noodle soup, and of course the eggs.

What. The. Hell.

“Well, let’s talk over breakfast, shall we?” the man beamed at him, looking very proud at the food he had prepared. And Taehyung had to swallow the tiniest thought that maybe just maybe the other man was trying to poison him. (But really, if he were God, he wouldn’t really poison him, right?)

And as if reading his mind the other man rolled his eyes as he took a pitcher of water out of the refrigerator. Looks like he had acquainted himself with the apartment while Taehyung was asleep. “I’m not trying to kill you if that’s what you’re thinking, Taehyung. Just come here and eat.”

Taehyung cautiously walked over, grabbing the high stool and sitting down slowly. God-ssi was eyeing him with much kinder eyes than he had last night, and he was watching his every move—from picking up the chopsticks, to poking at the chicken, to finally putting some food in his mouth.

And he had to admit, it was pretty good.

“So, who are you?” Taehyung asked. “I know that you’re God and all, but really, who are you and what are you doing here?”

God-ssi cleared his throat. “About that. I’d like to apologize by my sudden appearance last night. I kind of realized how bad my timing was, and I deeply apologize for any discomfort I’m causing.”

He paused and Taehyung continued to stare, waiting for the other man to continue. “And I probably was too impatient and you’re clearly confused… so, um, what do you remember from last night?”

Taehyung chewed slowly. “I remember you telling me that the world was in danger?”

“Ah yes. Okay then. We never really got past that part.”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with me?”

“Right…” the other man looked bothered, as if uncertain what to say. “I’ll just start by introducing myself then… properly this time.”

“Okay…”

“I am ‘God’. Just not the big guy everyone knows about. I’m _a_ god, if you will. And I’m here because Fate told me to.”

Taehyung nodded slowly, not of understanding but of incredulity—the kind that just makes you agree with what somebody says just to avoid further argument and just get to the end of it.

“And it sounds weird, I know. But I’m serious about it, okay?”

“Okay…”

God-ssi sighed. “Anyway, do you believe in soulmates?”

“Soulmates? Like people-destined-to-wander-around-the-earth-trying-to-find-their-other-halfs-because-they-were-originally-one-body-and-was-forced-apart kind of thing?”

“Uh yes, metaphorically… You got that from _The Symposium_ dialogue didn’t you?”

Taehyung grinned. “What can I say? It’s my philosophical disposition.”

“So do you or do you not?”

“I’d like to believe they exist. But…” _If they did, I would have met them by now or in the near future or else all these worthless relationships I’ve been having are all for nought_.

“They do exist, Taehyung. Soulmates exists.” God-ssi said. “But of course, nobody could tell. You aren’t given any identifying marks or indicators, but you have soulmates. And the gods of Fate assure of that.”

“So you’re saying that I have a soulmate?” Taehyung asked slowly.

God-ssi nodded. “Yes you do Taehyung. And you’re supposed to meet him in a few days.”

“You’re kidding.”

“The thing is, you _were_ supposed to meet him in a few days.” God-ssi sighed, taking the chopsticks from Taehyung’s hand which he had long forgotten to use. He picked up a piece of chicken.

“Wait, my soulmate’s a guy?” Taehyung asked, watching the other man eat the food he had prepared. “And what do you mean by ‘were supposed to’? I won’t get to meet him anymore?”

God-ssi just offered him a tight-lipped smile.

“Great,” Taehyung scoffed. “Just when I thought it wasn’t going to get worse… I just really lucked out of that department, haven’t I?”

God-ssi sympathetically patted him on the shoulder. “That doesn’t mean that nobody cares about you. I mean, why do you think I’m here?”

“I’ve been asking myself that question really. I have no idea why you’re here, God-ssi. Except maybe tell me that I’m bound to be alone forever.”

The other man picked up the chopsticks again and proceeded to grab Taehyung’s bowl altogether. “I’m here because I don’t really want you to be alone forever.”

Taehyung gaped at him. “No offense, God-ssi, you’re not exactly my type. And isn’t there a rule about gods and human dating?”

The other man choked on his food. Taehyung pushed the glass of water God-ssi poured earlier towards him instead.

“No, Taehyung,” God-ssi cleared his throat. “I’m not here to be…eww.” Taehyung tried to brush off the sudden hurt washing over him, successfully burying it in the deep recesses in his mind. “I’m here to make sure you do meet your soulmate, you idiot. You’re not exactly my type either.”

“Then why? Why is it so important that I meet my soulmate? Something tells me it isn’t because you actually care for my wellbeing.”

God-ssi smacked him on the head with the chopsticks. “What the fuck. Of course it’s because I care for your wellbeing. No one deserves to be alone, most of all you, Taehyung. Have a little love for yourself man.”

Taehyung just scowled at him, snatching the offensive eating utensils and the bowl from the other man.

“And well, there are consequences if you don’t meet him. Have you ever heard of predestination?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the number one argument against the Christianity,” Taehyung said poking at an egg yolk and scowling at the hardness. “Does that exist too?”

“Well, look at it as stories written by Fate and everything that happens is according to whatever is written. And everyone is just destined to meet that one person they are supposed to spend their lives with. You can call it predestination, but calling it fate is much more romantic, don’t you think?”

“Then if I have a soulmate, why don’t I get to meet him?”

“That,” God-ssi straightened, “is what I’m here to fix. Fate messed up your storyline basically. You were supposed to meet your soulmate, but he accidentally tangled another person’s storyline with his and now we’re in this mess.”

“So now what? Why can’t you fix it? Rewrite it back or write it in a way that he ends up meeting me anyway.”

“There are a lot of technicalities to this, really. Your soulmate’s already fallen in love with someone else. And there is no rewriting it back—even Fate bows down to the power of time. And there can’t be any manipulating in the stories. These storylines are tricky and they can’t just be changed. It takes a lot of manipulating other storylines to adjust, and that’s talking about more than seven billion strings.”

“So let me guess, you’re choosing the least tedious choice which is to appear to me and tell me what? To make an effort against Fate himself to win back my soulmate?”

God-ssi nodded slowly. “Along those lines yeah. But you’re not going against Fate, Taehyung. Since you’re storyline can’t progress without you meeting your soulmate, Fate decided to cut your strings—that is, he has no more jurisdiction over everything you do and will do.”

“I’m a free man, is what you’re saying.”

“Yes!” God-ssi looked relieved. “You were right when you said you’re much easier to handle with sober. Although you’re still a little stubborn, you catch on real quick.”

“Okay. Then you’re here to what? Supervise I don’t take advantage of my free will?”

“More or less. I’m just here to guide you to the right direction, put your head in the right intention. You may get to meet him, but that doesn’t mean he’ll fall in love with you in an instant. It’s going to be a lot of hard work.”

“What are you trying to prevent, God-ssi? You told me that there were going to be serious consequences if I don’t meet my soulmate. What happens if I don’t?”

God-ssi scratched the back of his neck. “Then the world ends.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know, I know. It sounds really hyperbole. But the thing is, in a few years a meteor is going to hit earth and well… poof.”

“And where do I and my soulmate come into the picture? And how does falling in love with each other save the world?”

“You guys get married and have a kid. And this kid grows up to be really, really smart, and he’s the one who literally finds a way to save the world from the meteor.”

“What the hell? The consequences are that serious?”

“Yep. And you guys kind of decide on getting a kid via surrogacy. So, do you see the problem here?”

“Really? Wait, is it really okay for you to tell me all this things?”

“Don’t worry about that, we’ll get to that in the later chapters of this story,” God-ssi winked at him.

Taehyung pushed his bowl away from him, suddenly not feeling hungry at all. “Boy. This is way too much in the morning. I still can’t believe it all.”

“I know. Dumping all responsibility on you like a pile of unwanted socks sucks.”

“How do I even do this? I just broke up with my boyfriend because I couldn’t satisfy him enough, what am I going to do about this soulmate of mine?”

“Hey,” God-ssi placed another hand on Taehyung’s shoulder. “You guys were literally written for each other. He’ll warm up to you slowly, but it will be undeniable. He’ll feel a pull towards you.”

Taehyung sighed. Somehow the thought of having a magical pull to attract his own soulmate was unfair. It would just mean that his soulmate will love him because Fate wanted him to and not because _he_ himself wanted to. But Taehyung didn’t voice these thoughts out. He’s had enough of those thoughts lately and he was honestly tired of putting himself down.

“Don’t worry Tae,” God-ssi smiled at him, shaking him a little in encouragement. “You’ll do fine. You’re not so bad, you know.”

Taehyung sighed again. “I just hope my soulmate thinks so too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, that girl who acted in I'm Your Destiny has an uncanny similarity with JK. Like I don't know if it's just me, but if I look at her, she can pass as JK female version... but then again, that's just me.
> 
> Here's the more updates before school begins!
> 
> :3


	4. 04. Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung gets caught stalking his soulmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's to you lovely people out there, leaving good response to this fic! I appreciate it so much that you've taken the time to read and actually wait for updates, and it makes me feel warm and tingly on the inside. Haha. I might be updating a little later in the day (or not, depending on your timezone).
> 
> :3

04.

**Tuesday**

Jeon Jeongguk.

That was the name of his soulmate. The guy that Fate supposedly wants him to be with. After that conversation he had had with God-ssi in his kitchen, the other man had decided to show Taehyung a picture of his soulmate (the man apparently having already devised a plan on getting them together but Taehyung felt like it was going to be easier said than done considering he was doing all the action and God-ssi was just there on the sidelines ready to whack him with a pair of chopsticks). And Taehyung had expected a pretty average looking man when God-ssi suddenly flipped a picture out of thin air. He was wrong. Really, really, wrong. Looking at the picture almost completely made Taehyung rethink about his luck on dating, because surely, that cute man in the picture _wasn’t_ his soulmate. He couldn’t be. (And the thought quickly dissipated when he reminded himself that no, this man was already in love with someone else.)

It was obviously a stolen photo. The boy in the picture had his head turned, diverting his attention elsewhere but it was a perfect angle to display his sharp jaw. And _holy shit_ , Taehyung could just imagine himself placing kisses all over him.

He had dark brown hair—parted to the side to reveal his forehead (such a clear face, Taehyung noticed. What was his skincare routine?). He had a big nose from the angle, but Taehyung couldn’t help thinking it had suited his overall look. He looked younger and Taehyung had to admit he had never dated anyone younger than him. The youngest he had dated was a boy who was a few months older (but then again, being a December baby everyone was bound to be older than him) and the relationship had lasted just as long.

The younger man was wearing dark clothing, from the hoodie he was wearing, to the jeans he had squeezed his muscular thighs into, except perhaps the white shirt that peeked underneath the dark navy hoodie. (Taehyung may or may not have drooled a bit.)

There wasn’t much one could say from a picture like this, but Taehyung had to admit that he _was_ extremely lucky to be mated with this young man. But considering the circumstances, maybe this Jeongguk kid was way too good for him and perhaps that was the reason Fate had messed up in the first place.

God, he was frustrating.

God-ssi was just watching him, waiting for a reaction as Taehyung took the image in. He was leaning against his palm with wide eyes. He didn’t take the silence for too long and nudged Taehyung with his elbow.

“So, what do you think?”

“He’s cute,” Taehyung admitted after a few seconds. He looked at God-ssi. “But you’re not fucking with me, are you? There is no way I deserve _this_.”

God-ssi scoffed. “Have you looked in front of the mirror? Surely, you don’t think your past lovers deserve _this_.” God-ssi said, gesturing to all of Taehyung.

Taehyung just scrunched his nose.

“His name is Jeon Jeongguk, he’s five years younger than you and currently a senior in the same university you work at. You don’t see him that much because he studies photography and the building he’s at is at the other side of the campus, right?”

“Um,” Taehyung put down the photo but didn’t look away. “How exactly do we meet? Like, how did Fate write it out?”

God-ssi blinked for a few times, processing the question. “I’m not sure really. Fate just told me that I had to help him fix this mess.”

“Oh. So you don’t get to see the stories themselves?”

God-ssi shook his head. “Nope,” God-ssi paused. “But from what I heard it was the most cliché scene ever.”

“How so?”

“You guys meet in a café, Taehyung, and the one spills coffee on the other, and the story spins from that,” God-ssi said.

“Wow. At least this time’s first encounter will be different,” Taehyung mused.

That was yesterday morning. And now, back at work, Taehyung was looking at the students currently enrolled in the database in a school computer for a certain Jeon Jeongguk. (He did consult with social media sites about the younger man for any more information yesterday, but what he only gathered was that the younger man loved taking mirror selfies and posting sporadically despite being a photography major. Perhaps he had separate accounts under pseudonyms? But no, stalking didn’t help at all.) He was attempting to have a glimpse of what Jeon Jeongguk was like a student. No one really knew him in the department he was in, and only a few nodded in recognition saying that the kid was actually a good students who passed his requirements on time and held good relationships with his classmates. (He had no idea why Jeongguk would take a Philosophy class, but the input from the other faculty was helpful.)

Taehyung was working as an assistant professor in the department, having just finished his master’s degree nearly two years ago. It was busy and most of the time he couldn’t find any time for himself, but he was having fun and he wouldn’t have changed it. His parents were a bit sceptical when he told them he’d study Philosophy. They had assumed he wanted to take it as a pre-law course and had expressed their assumptions, but Taehyung was quick to tell them otherwise. He remembered sitting them down and having a lengthy discussion about his reasons and his intentions, and it may or may not have ended in his mother bursting into tears. They accepted Taehyung’s decision anyway. (But the matter of Taehyung’s chosen profession was still a touchy subject.)

He had been working at the university for nearly five years already, and although he was mostly swamped with introductory and elective courses, it nevertheless made him happy. Perhaps, it was teaching what he had been most interested in that had given him a sense of content although he does have to admit feeling lonely and insecure at some times.

He had never had Jeon Jeongguk in his classes and he had certainly never heard of him until now. And it made sense when God-ssi told him that he studied photography, because why else wouldn’t he have been aware of the younger’s existence until now? (But really, what was the younger boy thinking enrolling in an Ethics class?)

“What are you doing?” Taehyung jumped when a very familiar voice turned up from behind him. He was in the midst of scanning Jeon Jeongguk’s grades (which were really impressive, really) when a very amused Kim Seokjin caught him in the act.

Taehyung smiled sheepishly as he minimized the browser, saving whatever dignity he had left. “I thought you had that meeting at the dean’s boardroom?”

“And here I thought you had a class to attend to,” Seokjin countered causing Taehyung to whip his head toward the direction of the wall clock only to find that the older male was bluffing.

“ _Hyung_ ,” Taehyung whined. He still had forty minutes to prepare.

The older man laughed. “I don’t know if stalking one of our students in the school database is a good thing to do, but it’s very creepy Taehyung.”

“I wasn’t stalking,” Taehyung instantly defended himself. “I was just… curious.”

“About Jeon Jeongguk?” Seokjin raised a brow, leaning against the cubicle divider. “And what has got you interested in Jeon Jeongguk?”

“You know him?” the younger asked, his eyebrows raising in anticipation.

Seokjin just hummed and shrugged. “He attended a lecture I spoke in once upon a time. He was there to take pictures than actually participate in the whole dialogue, but yeah.”

Taehyung nodded.

“So, are you going to tell me why you’re suddenly curious about this boy? Well, I wouldn’t blame you, he is cute but I wouldn’t—”

“Hyung!”

“I’m just saying Taehyung-ah. I will find out sooner or later,” and with a wink, Seokjin patted Taehyung on the shoulder and left for his own cubicle.

Kim Seokjin was the department chair despite having the same position as Taehyung (albeit had it longer, and Taehyung just had to wonder what prevented the older man from getting a promotion despite the shitload of things he had published and done for the academe and not to mention for the university). He was a brilliant scholar, an even more brilliant philosopher, a well-loved teacher around the campus, and a very good person in general.

Taehyung especially liked it when his sunbae would bring some food over and share it amongst the faculty. (When and how he found time to bake and cook, Taehyung had no idea but bless the older man’s soul for being so kind.) And he liked it when Seokjin would step down from his department chair exterior and just be himself—fanboying over Mario figurines, over Tasty videos, and even sharing stories of his younger brother whom he had been looking after since his parents had died when he was younger.

This made Taehyung all the more respect the elder.

But as kind and gentle the older man was, the scarier and suspicious he was over other things. You didn’t want to make him angry and you certainly didn’t want to be on his bad side. Taehyung felt a sudden chill at Seokjin’s words and was already developing a plan on telling why he _was_ technically stalking a student’s page in the school database without having it sound creepy and ill-intended. He couldn’t just tell him about the whole soulmate thing now could he?

(Taehyung really laughed at himself for unconsciously believing the whole thing. Was he really that desperate for a significant other?)

He didn’t get too far in his own thoughts when Minjae appeared at his cubicle. He was still an instructor, albeit in different departments, but the younger always found time to come and visit Taehyung whenever he felt like it. Taehyung never minded. It was nice to have something constant in his life making its presence occasionally.

“Sorry I didn’t drop by sooner. A handful of students came suddenly asking for last minute consultations about their presentations. I’m aware I’ve been in their place before, but damn, I have so much respect for my old professors now,” Minjae sat himself down on one of the chairs specifically for visitors and grabbed a kimbap.

“You’re the most patient person I know, Jae, you’re more than capable,” Taehyung patted him on the shoulder. “By the way, are you up for dinner later?”

“What’s the occasion, hyung?” Minjae perked up. He liked the mention of getting to eat to places.

“Just wanted to treat you for being a really patient person,” Taehyung grinned. “And it may or may not have something to do with what happened two nights ago.”

“Aw, hyung. You don’t need to treat me you know,” the younger man rubbed his nape. “But I am game for dinner.”

“Brat, are you really turning down free food?” Taehyung narrowed his eyes. “How can you forsake my appreciation for you?”

Minjae just laughed. “Fine, hyung. Just not somewhere too expensive.”

“Dude, I don’t appreciate you _that_ much,” Taehyung joked, earning a small hit on the shoulder from Minjae.

“How are you though? About the whole break-up thing?”

Taehyung sighed. He was too preoccupied with the soulmate thing that he didn’t really have time to actually feel anything about the break-up (post-shock and breakdown, that is). Thinking about it now, Taehyung was still saddened. He didn’t love Jihan but he was sure he was already on his way. The time and the amount of effort Taehyung had to pour into the relationship was laid to waste and that was the most regrettable thing in Taehyung’s opinion.

“I’m dealing with it much better than I thought,” Taehyung said. “Perhaps, I’ve just grown used to the whole feeling to not care so easily anymore.”

Minjae could only give him a sad look.


	5. 05. Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung meets his soulmate for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited... No, more like added because the 1K update made me too discontent. 
> 
> :3

05.

**Tuesday**

Kim Seokjin was giving him odd looks all afternoon and Taehyung didn’t feel all too good about it. He just smiled awkwardly at the older man as he quickly averted his attention to something else (like the snow globe one of their senior faculty had on their desk or that odd miniature skeleton on another’s desk). Taehyung would have believed that he had single handedly accomplished getting in Seokjin’s black list if it weren’t for the compliment the older gave him when he submitted a report a day earlier than the supposed deadline.

Curiously, when Taehyung returned to his desk from a short bathroom break, there was a sticky note stuck to the screen of his laptop. He was sure it wasn’t there just before he had gone to the bathroom, and he wasn’t entirely sure if it was one of their faculty members. They’d usually just wait for him to appear at his cubicle and come bother him then. Shrugging it off and intrigued at the idea of getting a sticky note (a break from the norm is refreshing sometimes), he sat down and picked up the note.

_Make sure to do overtime today. –God_

The message was scrawled in messy handwriting and if Taehyung felt a little better about himself he’d say that his handwriting was much better (though many would contest to that. His looked like a child played with the alphabet with newly acquired writing skills and was afterwards scratched by a group of chickens).

Taehyung instantly looked around the room upon realizing that the note was from God-ssi. He stood up from his chair so abruptly it almost pushed the chair onto the floor. He poked his head out of the short cubicle walls and tried to spot a tall man with dark clothing just roaming around.

 _Holy shit_.

Overtime though? What was Taehyung going to do with the self-inflicted overtime? Why would he do overtime anyways? (He wasn’t getting paid for it anyway). And more importantly, why was he so compliant to God-ssi’s requests? (Taehyung didn’t really want to admit that he was low-key a sucker for destiny and fate).

Luckily for him, Nana-ssi, an older Japanese professor who was teaching a special class on Japanese philosophy knocked on his cubicle wall.

“Noona!” Taehyung smiled at the older woman. “What can I help you with?”

“Taehyung-kun,” she started, returning his smile. “I was going to have an exam this evening but an emergency came up.”

Taehyung nodded, anticipating the next words tumbling from the older woman’s mouth. “The free elective course?”

Nana nodded. “The exam ends past five and I can’t find a last-minute stand in. I was wondering if you could do this favor for me?”

It wasn’t just because he was told to do overtime for some fateful reason, but the reason why Taehyung agreed to do it also had something to do with the fact that Nana was currently going through a divorce. It happened only a few months ago and she had confided to Seokjin about her situation and their gentle and kind department chair baked her cupcakes the next day and told the entire the department to help the older woman out. Taehyung was more than willing really. The older woman had helped him a few situations where he himself had to find a stand-in for classes, or even when he had invited her for a special lecture in one of his classes. (And she cooked them lunch sometimes. She brought really big bento boxes that one time and the whole department had a share in it—they were ten inside the department and everyone was beyond full.)

“Thank you so much, Taehyung-kun!” Nana smiled in relief. “I’ll hand you the attendance sheet and the questionnaires. I’ve gone through the questions already but please look over it one more time.”

She bowed multiple times in gratitude and Taehyung wanted to stop her. It wasn’t really customary to bow to someone younger to you, but Taehyung had an idea on how thankful Nana-noona was and he was happy to help. She stepped out of the cubicle and dropped the questionnaires on his desk, along with a packs of onigiri.

“The exam is until 7 and if they ask for an extension just give them forty-five minutes,” she instructed along with other more details. “I’m very thankful to you, Taehyung-kun,” she said again. Taehyung shook his head and told her it was no problem. She ruffled his hair before leaving the room.

It was more than a few hour’s wait until the said exam starts and Taehyung had only one class left which wasn’t going to start in less than an hour. He went through the questionnaires in the meantime and felt nostalgic about his own college days and wondered what God-ssi had planned with him getting overtime.

The few hours came and went, as well as the exam. He spotted a few familiar faces from his previous classes and bid them good luck as they started. Luckily the class didn’t need any extensions and they didn’t ask any clarifications from the questionnaire. (But then again, how do you ask any clarifications from just three questions provided. Taehyung sighed. That was better than the Western Modern Philosophy course he took as an undergrad where the professor had only one question for the whole examination which was worth more than a hundred points.)

As the last of the students filed out of the classroom, handing Taehyung their exam papers and giving him a smile, Taehyung stared at the clock and sighed. Nothing big happened during the exam, and as the last student left the room he doubted anything will happen after. He picked up the exam papers and cleaned the board before exiting the room and heading back towards the faculty room.

He wasn’t really surprised to find Seokjin still hunched over his desk and fixing a pile of papers (probably this year’s batch of thesis proposals) with a few members of the faculty getting ready to leave.

“Hey,” Taehyung greeted as he made a beeline to his own cubicle.

“Oh Taehyung-ah, so Nana asked you to fill in for her exam?” Seokjin looked up from his task. Taehyung nodded as he tiredly sorted out the exam papers alphabetically (Taehyung believed in helping someone in as much that you can do).

“I kind of miss being a university student,” Taehyung mused. “But then again I remember why I don’t give out long examinations in the first place.”

Seokjin laughed. “And the reason why you give out terminal papers instead?”

“Better than giving both,” Taehyung countered, laughing as well.

“Building character at its best,” Seokjin sighed with a smile.

They spent a few minutes in silence as the room began to empty.

Once the task was finished, Taehyung stretched and yawned.

“Hyung, are you still staying longer?” Taehyung asked, grabbing his jacket.

Seokjin was already fixing his bag and glanced at his watch. “Nope. I have to catch dinner with my brother. I lost a bet we made about a game show and now I have to treat him to steak.”

“Ooh,” Taehyung whistled. “Steak sounds so good right now.”

Seokjin laughed. “I’d invite you but both my brother and I have voracious appetites and there’s only so much my wallet could take.”

Taehyung laughed, “Nah it’s okay. I’m a little tired anyway and there isn’t a closest steak house around here.”

“I know,” Seokjin lamented. “Come on, let’s lock up.”

The two walked together towards the parking lot, after locking up the faculty room. It wasn’t a total ghost town even after 8. All the students gravitated towards the school library and Taehyung couldn’t help feel bad about contributing to some of the students’ pre-finals week torture. (And satisfied in some way that he had been able to sort of pay back the hours he lost studying back when he was still a college student.) Seokjin was talking about his new pets (Taehyung had no idea how the older man still found time to adopt new pets with his current load, but then again the man was a god in his own ways), and was showing pictures of a pair of sugar gliders he had named Eomuk and Odeng. Taehyung smiled, suddenly remembering the hyung he had been roommates with for half of his college life who had a Siamese cat he adored so much(“Taehyung-ah just look how cute she is, my baby Nora~”) and wondering if pets really instantly turned someone into a pile of mush.

When they reached Seokjin’s car, the older man glanced at his phone. “Aish, that kid isn’t replying to my texts again.”

“I’m sure he’s on his way, it’s steak anyway,” Taehyung chuckled.

As if on cue, someone called out “Hyung!” from behind them. Both of them turned around to see a younger man running towards them, his thick Timberlands making loud noises as they hit the ground.

Taehyung had never seen Seokjin’s younger brother despite the older man’s habit of talking so lovingly about him. Maybe he saw a few baby pictures and elementary school photos but it wasn’t Taehyung to ask a person about his private life if he didn’t want to disclose it. But oh boy, was Taehyung surprised as Seokjin’s younger brother who he affectionately called ‘Kookie’ approached them, making his features clearer and distinct.

Holy shit. It’s Jeon Jeongguk.

Taehyung stared dumbly at the younger man who was busy apologizing profusely to his older brother who was currently sporting an evil grin while keeping glances at Taehyung (the bastard, and holy motherfucker Taehyung was caught technically _stalking_ his younger brother through the school database. FUCKING SHIT.)

“Jeonggukie,” Seokjin said after verbally forgiving the younger man. He put a hand on both Jeongguk and Taehyung’s shoulder as he directed all attention to the latter. Taehyung wanted to slap himself. Jeonggukie. Gukkie. KOOKIE. It made fucking sense and all he wanted to do was dig a hole and bury himself. “This is Kim Taehyung, he’s a fellow junior faculty,” he introduced giving Taehyung a shit-eating grin. (The devil himself, ladies and gentleman. Kim Seokjin was not the angel he appeared to be. He was a conniving, sly fox, Taehyung lamented.)

“Hello, Kim Taehyung-ssi,” Jeongguk greeted bowing slightly. “It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for looking after my brother.”

“Uh, yeah,” Taehyung cleared his throat, avoiding and trying really hard not to mind Seokjin’s tight-lipped smile (probably from trying to stop himself from laughing). “It’s nice to meet you too,” he said, finally bowing and wishing he’d be swallowed by the ground already.

“Well, I actually made a reservation so we better not be late,” Seokjin said, breaking Taehyung from his self-pitying state. “Take care going home, Taehyung-ah.”

Taehyung smiled and bowed as Jeongguk did the same. Taehyung watched the two get into the car and with one final wave, Seokjin pulled out from the parking lot and out of the school premises. Taehyung watched the car disappear before shrinking to the ground in utter humiliation. If he didn’t know any better, he’d start believing that Kim Seokjin was actually working with God-ssi in this whole scheme.

And Jeon Jeongguk was very very handsome in real life.

He would have preferred a very cliché first meeting over this any time.

 “Well, at least on the bright side,” God-ssi suddenly appeared by his side. Taehyung looked up, surprised to see that the other man’s brown locks was now purple. “You’ve met the kid already and he’s probably asking about you as we speak.”

“I hate you,” Taehyung buried his head under his arms. God-ssi just chuckled.


	6. 06. Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Park Jimin makes an entrance.

06.

**Wednesday**

If anyone told Taehyung that he’d be having a drink with God someday he’d be laughing at their faces and probably spew argument after argument why that was unlikely (one of which was the possibility that God may not even exist, but that’s another thing entirely. Taehyung may have a philosophical disposition but that didn’t mean he was instantly or completely atheistic.)

But here he was, drinking a bottle of wine with the said man inside his apartment as he lamented over the small encounter with Jeon Jeongguk.

“Why didn’t you tell me that they were brothers? I feel like I could just die any moment,” Taehyung groaned into his palms. “The least you could’ve done was warn me about it and not just tell me some vague message on a post-it note.”

God-ssi laughed, taking a sip from his glass. “I told you, where’s the fun in that? And besides, it wasn’t my fault you didn’t probe further about Seokjin’s brother and you’ve known him for how long?”

Taehyung wanted to give him the bird, but he decided against it. (The mere idea of flicking a god off didn’t sit too well with him whether or not he really was a god.) “I would have expected you to be my wingman at this situation, God-ssi.”

“I’m your guide, not your wingman, Taehyung.”

Taehyung pouted. “That’s sad. Does that mean we’re not friends?”

God-ssi didn’t say anything at first, just staring at his wine glass as if contemplating what to say. “I guess you can say we are of sorts,” he said after a while, though he still sounded unsure.

Taehyung didn’t say anything further about it. Instead he stood up and grabbed the bottle of wine and headed for the kitchen. “Okay then, I’m ordering pizza for the name of our newly developed friendship!”

God-ssi just smiled.

God-ssi wasn’t anywhere in the apartment the next morning. Instead there was another post-it note on the counter with a folded newspaper and a steaming mug of coffee.

_The meteor’s been sighted. Turn to xx._

The article was indeed there and it ended up dismissing the possibility that it might hit the earth considering that it was too early to tell. Taehyung sighed as he put the newspaper down the counter. He briefly wondered what any other person would do if they knew what he already knew, and what they’d do if they were in his situation. He wasn’t really sure about the outcomes, but he was sure they’d do a much greater job than he would.

He was already doing a bad job so far (having caught by his supposed soulmate’s brother isn’t really a sign that he was doing well at making the said soulmate fall for him) and he dreaded to think of what kind of road he was already in, and what lay ahead.

On the brighter side, Jeon Jeongguk really was more attractive than the pictures made him turn out to be.

Taehyung’s routine always involved walking a few blocks from his apartment building to the quaint little café his friend owned. He usually walked there in the mornings since it was the most convenient time to squeeze in a short visit and a coffee run at the same time. It turns out, it wasn’t really easy to stay contact with friends after college and especially after getting a job. (It was Jimin, his friend who had drifted away first. He had been planning on establishing a café even before they had met and that was the sole reason why he majored in business. He had finally gotten the means to kickstart the plan and Taehyung didn’t mind being set aside temporarily if it meant Jimin getting the dream he had always wanted.) So for Taehyung, these little runs to the café was little sacrifice if he got to see one of the dearest people he had met in college (and get a coffee discount).

He wasn’t able to go to the café in the last few days and Jimin had texted, asking if he was doing okay. Their conversations were sporadic and usually short, but Taehyung was grateful for the conversations. He’d often send him pictures of his day or memes he found in the internet, or just random texts ranging from asking what color he was wearing or what the café specialty was for the day. Taehyung had sent Jimin assuring texts and told him he’d visit soon (he couldn’t really tell Jimin about the break-up through text. He felt like he owed it to Jimin to tell him in person and he contemplated on whether he should tell him about the whole soulmate thing or not. Knowing the dude, he’d probably jump at the chance if he were Taehyung. Unlike his philosophically inclined friend, Jimin was much more susceptible to things concerning fate and soulmates. He never got around asking God-ssi if it was okay to tell people about the whole thing. But then again, God-ssi would probably give him this look daring him to do it and see).

Calico Cat was actually just a short walk from his apartment. He’d be there every day if it weren’t for the fact that Taehyung had the tendency to sleep through his alarm causing him to take a taxi instead. The café closes early and so Taehyung couldn’t really drop by after school considering that he also stayed back a few hours to finish grading papers or updating his own working projects.

The doorbell jingled as Taehyung stepped inside. It was too early yet there was already a small line gathering by the counter. Taehyung took his place at the end of the line and looked around the café for any changes that he had missed from the few days he hadn’t been able to visit. Nothing significant changed really. The same pastry and coffee smell was still thick and aromatic as always, and the lively and homey feeling the whole establishment emanated was still there. It was these instances that Taehyung felt proud for his friend for achieving all this in such a short time. Although it had been rough and had a few times where Jimin was threatened to close it down, it was doing well and Taehyung hoped it would continue that way.

When he finally made it to the counter for his own order, the worker at the cashier smiled at him. “Good morning, hyung! I haven’t seen you in a while, everything doing okay?” the young man asked as he grabbed a paper cup and scribbled on it.

“I’ve just been busy. Thanks for asking, Youngjae-yah,” Taehyung beamed at the younger man who punched in his order with fluency. Taehyung handed in his payment just as Youngjae handed him the receipt.

“I’ll tell Jimin-hyung you’re here. He’s doing inventory at the back.”

Taehyung nodded, thanking the younger boy. He took an empty seat next to the small stage provided by the side. Taehyung had never seen anyone perform on it despite Jimin’s invitations to come watch the rare open mic nights he hosted. Aside from Youngjae and his incredible vocal power, Jimin always bragged about this boy who was really good at singing and playing the guitar that he considered actually hiring the kid to come perform every week. Taehyung hadn’t asked about what happened about that.

Youngjae came to his table with his usual drink and a small paper bag containing the chocolate croissants Taehyung adored out of all the pastries in the café.

“One hot chocolate with extra diabetes,” Youngjae announced with a laugh. “Jimin-hyung will be out in a few.”

“Thanks again. How’s that music composition going on by the way? Have you gotten around it since last time?”

The younger scratched his head. “Still stuck on the same verse, actually. It’s kind of hard to write a love song when you’re not exactly in love.”

Taehyung gave him a sympathetic smile. “Why don’t you try looking at it in a different angle? Like, don’t you wish you were in love?”

“Well… I guess so?”

“Start from that,” Taehyung said, tipping his cup like a salute.

“Good morning, Teacher Tae. This is a pleasant surprise.” Taehyung and Youngjae turned to see Jimin walking out from the counter, wearing a large grey sweater which contrasted nicely with the pink hair he was sporting.

“Isn’t Tae a natural in advising?” Jimin laughed as he wrung an arm around Youngjae’s shoulder. Taehyung decided not to comment on the obvious height difference, but just smiled.

“Can’t really complain, all I’ve been doing in the past few weeks was advise theses dissertations,” Taehyung said.

“I’ll just finish the inventory for you, hyung,” Youngjae said as he smiled at older men before disappearing in the back room.

“So,” Jimin started, pulling the empty chair next to Taehyung. “I’ve heard something over the grapevine.”

Taehyung drunk from his cup instead of answering. Jimin scowled at his friend, knowing in full detail the contents of the drink he was currently enjoying. (Taehyung had an abnormal sweet tooth. He customized Jimin’s hot chocolate recipe and basically created his own drink—one that’s topped with marshmallows to gummy bears and not to mention the amount of caramel syrup in that thing. Jimin wonders why he doesn’t have diabetes yet, and wonders how Taehyung can even drink it with a straight face. Taehyung is adamant that the drink was worthy into the menu but Jimin was equally adamant at not getting shut down because of health hazards.)

“Come on, spill the tea. Jihan was an asshole and I’m glad you broke up with him but I gotta know what you feel about the whole thing,” Jimin persisted. “You could’ve called me you know.”

“I know,” Taehyung said, smiling apologetically. “I’m doing better than I expected actually. Jihan’s assholery isn’t something to cry over for.”

“Still you fell head over heels for it,” Jimin pointed out. “But Tae, you know I’m here for you right? Even if we don’t hang around as much, you know I’d drop everything if it means you need help or anything.”

Taehyung could tell Jimin was hurt by the fact that he had called Minjae that one night and honestly, Taehyung felt bad that Jimin wasn’t the first person he thought of. He felt like a bad person for being such a shitty friend and all he could do was nod at Jimin.

“I know,” he added. “How are you and Hobi-hyung?” he asked, changing the subject. He took a mental note to get back on the subject, but it was too early for such emotions.

Jimin sighed but not really complaining about the subject change. Instead he smiled and leaned against his palm. “We’ve been busy these days. He has that talent show to look over at the academy and I’m over here trying to figure out if I have the means to open a second shop.”

Taehyung broke into a smile. “Really? A second shop?”

“That’s what I said,” Jimin said, his eye smile making an appearance. “I found a newly vacated spot a few streets away and I’ve been doing the math and I think I can manage a second shop.”

“Oh my God, Jiminnie, that’s great!” Taehyung set his cup down to hold Jimin’s hand. “But what’s stopping you?”

Jimin shrugged. “You know… it’s a risk and we’ve been through that before.”

Taehyung clicked his tongue. “Jiminnie, if you could get through that, then you can get this through. I mean, think about it! A lot of people have been coming here and I even hear a few students of mine saying this might as well be the new Starbucks.”

Jimin hit him playfully. “Don’t be ridiculous. Can’t my shop be its own brand?”

“Right you are, this shop deserves that.”

“Thanks. Hobi thinks it’s a good idea but nothing’s set in stone yet.”

“You better make that decision quick. If I’m correct that empty spot was where that antique shop used to be, right? That’s like near the center of the city, Jimin, it’s a really great spot!”

“Now you’re talking like a capitalist,” Jimin laughed.

Taehyung laughed as well.

“Hey, aren’t you gonna be late to school?”

Taehyung checked the wall clock on top of the counter. “I still have a few minutes to spare. But yeah, I should get going.” He stood up, grabbing his things as Jimin stood up as well, ready to walk him to the door. “By the way, you free this evening?” Taehyung asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Just wanted to hang… I kinda feel bad.”

Jimin ruffled Taehyung’s hair. (Taehyung was really meticulous about it, but he let it slide since it was Jimin. He always had a habit of ruffling other people’s hair regardless of height differences.)

“Just text me, okay? You know I close around 5 anyway.”

Taehyung smiled. He couldn’t really afford to be shitty at intrapersonal relationships. Even if he started bad with the whole Jeongguk thing, the least he could do was actually make an effort.


	7. 07. Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung gets an invitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm basically just updating as much as I can because I have to enroll this week, and I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, and I'm freaking out on sugar.
> 
>  
> 
> :3

**07.**

**Wednesday**

When Taehyung first heard about Min Yoongi was a few months after he was hired as an instructor. He was busy checking Logic exams when he heard Kim Seokjin fiercely arguing with another man. Taehyung had never heard nor seen Seokjin angry at this point (but what he did see was an all-smiley faced Seokjin and couldn’t decide if he was being too nice or being too controlled of his anger. He’d seen it a couple of times when the older man was scolding a few students of his about something Taehyung couldn’t remember. But he had to admit he felt the second-hand fear just being a cubicle away), but that was probably the moment he could say was the closest. His usually nice tone and demeanour was gone and was replaced by a clearly irritated and nearly fuming one.

Taehyung had to look up from his task. Seokjin had been accompanied by a shorter man, one who looked like he was ready to crush skulls with the way he glared at the older man and the way he sounded. Being sat just next to Seokjin’s workspace, Taehyung was shocked to see the scene unfold but when he looked around the room to see if anyone was as shocked as he was. The rest of the faculty was indeed staring, but they looked like they’ve seen the same movie over and over again as they had resumed their previous tasks. Professor Park Jinyoung who was visiting from the literature department had sighed.

“They’re at it, again,” Jinyoung had said as he walked towards Taehyung’s cubicle. He had met Park Jinyoung a few times before, and even if he didn’t share his taste in books (they argued a bit about A Catcher in the Rye but they ended up laughing at each other) they were good acquaintances. They had stepped out for a bite one time with a few others and that’s when they learned they had a mutual friend in the form of his previous roommate in college. (Jinyoung told him that his previous roommate was now working as a producer at some rising entertainment company, Taehyung wasn’t really surprised. He did ask about Nora, and Jinyoung had rolled his eyes and told him that Jaebum had proceeded to adopt two more cats. Typical.)

“Again?” Taehyung spun around. He shouldn’t be surprised really, everyone inside the room (and even Park Jinyoung who wasn’t part of the faculty) were indifferent and totally uncaring of the scene in front of them.

Jinyoung chuckled then scowled when Seokjin’s interlocutor banged his hand against the table. “I would have assumed people gave you a head’s up. You’re familiar with Min Yoongi, aren’t you?”

Taehyung shook his head. He hadn’t really gotten around knowing everyone in the campus. It was a _big_ campus.

“Well those two were hired around the same time, and I don’t know the whole story since I wasn’t here at that time, but they just didn’t click and have been fighting over the most trivial things. You could say they’re each other’s nemesis, but if you ask me, that’s just a lot of pent up sexual tension.”

Taehyung blanched, sending his hyung an unbelieving look, one that was couldn’t comprehend how his sunbae could say something like that. The argument had simmered a bit after a few minutes (and Taehyung was already finishing grading the quizzes) until Seokjin said an offhand comment about something Taehyung couldn’t remember that sent Min Yoongi fuming out of the department.

Jinyoung had laughed at the drama and proceeded to even tease Seokjin who just glared half-heartedly at him.

The reason why Taehyung was suddenly reminded of his first encounter with Min Yoongi (and he had witnessed other instances and arguments. There was one time he tried to be mediator and ended up being rudely told off by the older man. Still, they were formally introduced when Taehyung visited the department during a school fair. He was cool when he wasn’t busy trying to one up Seokjin) was because the said man came knocking at the department door, asking if Kim Taehyung was around.

Taehyung had just come in after timing over a class (again) and had barely put his things down when the call came. He peeked out from his cubicle wall and awkwardly lifted his right hand.

“I’m right here, sunbaenim,” Taehyung said, looking awkwardly at Seokjin who was typing furiously at his laptop in his space.

“Right,” Min Yoongi said, walking directly towards his direction. He passed by Seokjin’s space and scowled at the older man who rolled his eyes in return.

“Would you like to take a seat?” Taehyung asked, pulling out the stack of books seated on the extra chair.

“Sure,” Yoongi said coolly and waited patiently for Taehyung to fix up a bit.

“Sorry. I just got back from class,” Taehyung said, still trying to figure out where he should place the suddenly displaced books. He had opted to put them on the floor in the meantime. (He hadn’t gotten around getting that new bookshelf he had told himself to get.)

“It’s fine, this is a short notice anyway,” the older man said.

“Okay,” Taehyung smiled, finally sitting down to face Min Yoongi. “So how can I help you, Min-sunbaenim?”

“-ssi is okay, Taehyung-ah. Anyway, you are familiar with this annual thing the senior photography majors do where they compile their good stuff and publish them independently as an overall portfolio?”

Taehyung nodded. He had bought a few postcards from the fundraiser. It wasn’t professional portfolios, but Taehyung loved photography and loved the idea of the independent and underground.

“I’ve bought some of their stuff. I even got some framed in my apartment,” Taehyung said with a smile. “You’re students are really talent, Yoongi-ssi. You must be proud.”

Yoongi smiled, albeit a small one, but Taehyung still felt that surge of pride being able to impress the older man.

“Well, they’ve got their moments.” Ever the tsudere. Taehyung mentally rolled his eyes at the attempt. “But you are aware that they conform to a single theme for this stuff?”

“Yes.” Taehyung nodded, patient with whatever Yoongi was building up to. “The themes have been creative so far. Last year was especially challenging.”

“Well, the theme is normally agreed upon by the whole Media department but this year, we let the students decide considering that they’re arguably the best batch we’ve seen so far.”

“Ooh, high expectations then,” Taehyung commented, maintaining the smile on his face.

“Definitely. We just got the theme actually, and I can already conclude that the kids are geniuses but they’re crazy.”

“Crazy?”

“They decided to go for a teacher-appreciation kind of thing, and they wanted their subjects to be about their professors.”

“Oh.” Taehyung straightened. “Well, I guess that’s going to be hard to achieve considering that a lot of the school’s faculty are busy with their own matters…but where do I come in? Shouldn’t you be talking to Seokjin-hyung about this? He is the department chair after all.”

Yoongi sighed. “We couldn’t really say that they could take a picture of every professor in campus. We’d be needing more than the usual twenty or so pages. So we’re the ones looking for the willing teachers.”

“Yoongi-ssi, are you asking me to be a part of this project?” Taehyung asked slowly.

“More or less. See, before we all agreed on the theme, the kids demanded to have at least two of their wanted teachers on the list. They asked for Park Jinyoung from the literature department and for some odd reason, Kim Seokjin but he’s not doing it.”

“PH.D~” Seokjin singsonged, clearly giving away the fact that he was eavesdropping in their conversation.

Yoongi clearly looked unamused. “I didn’t want to deal with you more than I already am, anyway,” he said, not even sparing Seokjin a glance.

“So, you’re asking me instead?” Taehyung asked.

“Yep. The kids were adamant that if they couldn’t get their ‘Seokjin-seonsangnim’ they wanted the ‘cute new philosophy professor with the silver blonde hair’.” Yoongi said, complete with the sneering quotation gestures. “And they didn’t even know your name until Jeon Jeongguk pointed it out.”

Taehyung choked on air. The older man just raised a brow. “Okay… so do I have choice in this?”

“Of course you do. We may live in a false democracy, but I still believe in choice.”

“I…uh—can I think about it?” Taehyung asked.

“You should be anyway. I’m not pressuring you or anything, Taehyung-ah. I’m just giving you a heads-up on the situation. The kids may be crazy, but they deserve to be spoiled sometimes. They’ll be sending you a formal email and you can confirm by then.”

Taehyung nodded. “Okay.”

Yoongi stood up from his chair. “Thank you for your time, Taehyung-ah.”

Taehyung nodded again, bowing slightly and watched the older man leave the cubicle, not without having something to say with Seokjin on his way out.

Minutes later when Taehyung was wondering and trying to comprehend what had happened, Seokjin peered from his cubicle and sent a thumbs-up to him. “Taehyung-ah fighting~!”

Taehyung wanted to sigh and question the heavens with everything they’re trying to put on his way.

That afternoon after ending his last class of the day, Taehyung received a text from Jimin who asked if dinner was still on. Taehyung had answered in the affirmative and received an address in return.

The walk to the said restaurant wasn’t that long and although the sky looked like it was going to rain, Taehyung had rejoiced in the fact that he had reached his destination without having a drop of water hit him. (He forgot his folded umbrella again. He might have forgotten to put it back in when he was rearranging his stuff looking for his flashdrive.)

It was a family restaurant that Taehyung had heard Seokjin mention one time and although he wasn’t really familiar with the establishment, his hunger was anticipating whatever was there in the menu. (And if Jimin chose a place, you’d bet that it was going to be good.)

He stepped inside, instantly feeling the warm and homey atmosphere. It wasn’t really crowded and he had managed to find Jimin sitting somewhere in the back. (His pink hair was a good beacon and very advantageous for situations like this especially when Taehyung usually lost Jimin in a crowd.)

“Jiminnie!” Taehyung greeted as his friend smiled and stood up to greet him too.

“Tae! You’re just in time. I already ordered for the both of us, if you don’t mind?”

He shook his head. “Not at all. I didn’t realize how starving I was until I got here.”

Jiminie chuckled. “You are eating well, aren’t you? Jaebum-hyung’s not here to baby you anymore.”

Taehyung scowled at his friend. “I can cook too, Jimin, don’t discredit me like this.”

“You know how to cook rice and instant noodles, I guess you’ll live.”

“Hey!” Taehyung pouted.

Jimin laughed. “I’m kidding. You’ve always been so easy to tease, Tae.”

Taehyung pouted still, but shrugged it off. He won’t admit how much he missed being teased by Jimin anyway. “So how’d you find this place anyway?”

“A friend of mine works here. And he’s kind of a regular in the café too.”

“Wow. Small world.”

“It is. Anyway, how’s your day, seonsangnim?”

Taehyung rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing to tell. It’s just the old boring stuff, you know. Where’s Hobi-hyung anyway? I expected him to be here too.”

“So you wanted to hang out with Hobi and not me. You could’ve just said so, Taehyung-ah,” Jimin feigned hurt.

Before Taehyung could say anything, someone came in to bring their drinks. They both sat up to let their waiter do his thing. Taehyung eyed the red-drink. Was it red iced tea? Or just some other delicate drink he hasn’t heard off. Should he take a smell? Maybe—

“Thanks, Jeongguk-ah!” Jimin perked up.

Taehyung instantly looked up and indeed, the waiter standing by their table was Jeon Jeongguk with a black polo shirt and a grey apron wrapped around his waist.

“Oh, hi,” Taehyung said dumbly.

“Oh hello, seonsangnim! Fancy seeing you here… with Jimin.”

“Yah!” Jimin hit the younger boy on the arm. “That’s Jimin- _hyung_ to you, brat!”

Taehyung decided to take a drink of his red juice (It was red iced tea) and had to wonder how Fate could mess up their strings and still have them meet like this? Maybe Fate just hates him.


	8. 08. Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the attraction is evident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note from January 13:
> 
> Dear wonderful readers,
> 
> Hi!
> 
> It's not update though, I'm sorry. :(
> 
> I just finished enrolling for the second semester of my third year in college, and I have to admit that looking at my schedule and subjects makes me want to cry, go home and start having thoughts of taking over my father's farm. Although I'm already seeing that I won't be able to update as much, that is not the reason as to why I'm writing this.
> 
> So... my laptop crashed.
> 
> Yep. And needless to say that everything-- my past papers and school work, movies, BTS videos, pictures, and basically the whole soft copy of this fic--cannot be reached at the moment and has the possibility of disappearing from the face of the earth.
> 
> I am internally crying and trying to muster enough courage to tell my dad about the situation.
> 
> Though I can use my father's computer for the meantime (and hell, if I have to use my phone, it's so damn hard to type on that thing and I feel as if my creative juices are cramped in that one small screen), I can only borrow it for limited amounts of time. So yeah, updating will be a lot harder.
> 
> So, I decided to take a notebook and continue from where I left off. It's going to be tedious, but I do miss the old fashioned-style writing with pen and paper. I'm sorry though for the circumstances and I hope that you'd hold onto this story, perhaps put it back in the bookshelf for the meanwhile, or bookmark it or whatever it is you do to put a pause on things. It won't be horribly long though, I'm sure getting my laptop fixed is going to take a few weeks at least.
> 
> Thank you for the support for this fic so far! I honestly had no idea it was going to receive this much response, much less this much viewership.
> 
> I won't be that long, lovely people, and I bid good luck to your current life's ventures!
> 
> Here's to the new year, to the new school year (though I'm feeling VERY VERY ambivalent about this), and to... well, everything.
> 
> (Reading through this objectively makes me wonder whether the author is telling me that she's stopping the fic or that updates will just take longer, but I'm too lazy to decide what my final point is.)
> 
> Anyway, love you people, and let's hope this new semester doesn't kill me.
> 
> Your author,
> 
> Me. :3

**08.**

**Wednesday**

“Wait, you know each other?” Jimin asked, looking back and forth at Taehyung and at Jeongguk.

“He’s hyung’s co-worker,” Jeongguk said. “We just met yesterday actually.” He was smiling. It wasn’t the kind of smile that reached his eyes, Taehyung noticed. It was a smile of recognition or amusement of circumstances that they mutually knew more than one person, and maybe if Taehyung wasn’t aware of the things he knew, he would have to. Instead, he offered the younger man a tight slipped smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes either.

“Uh, yeah,” Taehyung dumbly agreed, finally taking interest in the red iced tea that was slowly dripping water from the ice.

“So he’s the friend you wanted me to meet?” Jeongguk asked, looking at Jimin. He had tucked the tray under his left arm, and if Taehyung wasn’t so preoccupied trying to figure out he was going to do, he would have noticed the slight fidgeting the Jeongguk’s fingers was going through at the tray.

“Yep. Taehyung was my best friend in college. I did tell you about him, didn’t I? We haven’t hung out in a while,”

Jeongguk nodded. “I see.”

“And Tae,” Jimin clicked his fingers on front of Taehyung’s face to steal his attention away from his iced tea. “This is the kid I was telling you about recently. The kid who sings at the café at open mic nights?”

“I see,” Taehyung nodded absentmindedly. “If you weren’t dating Hobi-hyung, I’d say you have a crush on the kid.”

Jimin pouted as Jeongguk gave his shorter hyung a smug grin. (No, Taehyung did not find it attractive.) “Jimin would never admit it, but I’m his favourite dongsaeng.”

“I’m afraid that title goes to Youngjae-yah, you brat. At least he calls me hyung.”

Jeongguk hummed with a smile. “Okay, _hyung_ , if that’s what makes you feel better.”

Jimin threw his hands in the air exasperatedly. “I didn’t come here just so you can make fun of me, Jeon Jeongguk.”

Jeongguk laughed and Taehyung didn’t want to admit that was more attractive than his smile. (God. He had only met the kid and now he has a crush on him.)

“I’m sure Taehyung-seonsangnim doesn’t mind,” Jeongguk said, looking at Taehyung.

“Of course not. Making fun of Jimin is my job and it’s nice to have someone having the same hobbies as I do.”

“Oh my God,” Jimin sighed into his hands. “What did I put myself into?”

Jeongguk chuckled. “Well, I’ll join you guys in a while. My shift doesn’t end for another fifteen minutes.”

Jimin lifted his head from his hands. “I thought you said you’re shift ends any minute now.”

“Yeah, but my co-worker is running late, so I have to cover for her in the meantime.”

“Okay, work hard, Jeongguk-ah!” Jimin waved as Jeongguk smiled at Taehyung before stepping away. Taehyung had to gawk at the 180 Jimin just turned into.

“You’re fond of the kid, aren’t you?” Taehyung asked, twirling the straw in his drink. “You’re such a softie.”

Jimin flicked his tongue at him. “You love me for it anyway.”

Taehyung had to shrug at that.

“So, you’ve met Jeongguk already?” Jimin perked up. “It really is a small world.”

“Yeah,” Taehyung just smiled. “How’d you meet him anyway?”

“Well, the kid walked into the café with his friends a few months ago.  They came in to do a group project of sorts. And get this, he orders the same thing you do. Minus the extra toppings and syrup. He ordered the hot chocolate and grabbed a handful of sugar packets. His friends did even seem fazed about it.”

Taehyung gulped, thinking no way. But he just chuckled at his friend and leaned against his palm. “At least now I know I’m not the only one.”

“Ugh, Jeongguk said the same thing when I told him I had another customer who orders a cup of diabetes every chance he gets.”

Their food came in shortly in the midst of Taehyung telling Jimin all about that night of the break-up. (He omitted the parts where he met God-ssi of course. He didn’t really trust himself enough to actually make it sound convincing without him having looking like a hopeless and desperate lunatic.) Jeongguk was already out of his uniform as he placed the food on the table. Jimin moved to the side to give the younger some space to sit on.

“Sorry about that. Jisoo-noona had an exam to finish. Calculus and all that,” Jeongguk said, assessing the white shirt he wore for any stains.

“It’s fine. It’s not like we’ve been waiting for ages anyway. And Taehyung is like the most patient person I know,” Jimin said. “Why are there only two pairs of chopsticks?” he questioned as he scoured the whole table with his eyes.

“Oh, I’m not staying long. Seokjin-hyung said he has some visitors tonight and he wants me to be there,” Jeongguk said, looking apologetically at Jimin and Taehyung.

“It’s fine,” Jimin waved it off. “Have a little bit of food, at least.”

Jeongguk smiled. “I had a few bites in between hours, so I’m good.”

“Okay then,” Jimin said, rolling his eyes. “He’s just shy ‘cause you’re here. Trust me, he won’t even wait for me to offer the food and then he’s already halfway through my meal,” he said, eyes directly at Taehyung. “This kid is a shark.”

“ _Hyung_ ,” Jeongguk whined. Taehyung could feel the younger kicking Jimin under the table. “This is why you don’t have friends.”

“ _Excuse me_ ,” Jimin gasped, he turned in his seat in a way he’s directly in front of the youngest. Taehyung watched in amusement as the two began having a back-and-forth about friendship and respect. He wordlessly grabbed some food into his plate and munched as Jeongguk just rolled his eyes at his hyung which caused the older boy to further his ruminations. Jeongguk wordlessly let his hyung spill on and on as he grabbed the chopsticks from Jimin’s hand (who let it go so easily as if he wasn’t even conscious) and joined Taehyung with the food.

“…and lastly, Jeon Jeongguk,” Jimin breathed. “I was born earlier than you, so that has to count for something you muscle brain.”

“The time that you had taken to express your spiel is also the time where we already finished half the food,” Taehyung interfered, stuffing another mandu into his mouth as Jimin stared at their table in horror.

“Kim Taehyung, you did not just!”

Jeongguk laughed and Taehyung shrugged at his friend who was silently giving him death glares from across the table. But that didn’t end for long when Jeongguk had placed a few pieces of food on Jimin’s plate. Taehyung had to keep himself from laughing at the instant hear-eyes Jimin was sporting. He looked like a cat owner who was actually touched for receiving a dead bird or mouse at his feet.

Jeongguk wiggled his eyes at Taehyung which was a silent message saying, “I have him eating out of my palm, don’t worry.”

Even with the short time with Jeon Jeongguk, Taehyung found himself transfixed on the younger. Taehyung didn’t participate much on the ongoing conversation seeing that Jimin and Jeongguk were talking about things only they knew and Jimin would only sometimes explain the context. It seemed to Taehyung that they knew each other longer than the few months Jimin told him about. They looked so comfortable together that Taehyung silently wished he was that close to the younger.

He found himself staring far too long when Jeongguk spoke, or too intently at his mouth when the younger laughed at something Jimin said or a funny memory he recounted. Jeongguk had a really nice voice, and without needing to, Taehyung already knew how he would sound singing. The thought alone makes Taehyung fidget.

And when he’d look at Taehyung and ask him a question, Taehyung would find himself startled at first and would stumble in his words. Jimin had been eyeing him funny whenever this happened and Taehyung would give subtly wave him off on whatever thought was bubbling inside his pink-haired brain.

“How about you, seonsangnim?” Jeongguk asked and this time Taehyung wasn’t surprised. They were talking about Calico Cat, which was familiar to all three of them and Taehyung was a bit more interested in the conversation than a certain doe-eyed boy sitting just across the table. “Do you prefer the danishes or the fougasse? I personally think they’re the café’s specialities.”

“I’d say the croissants,” Taehyung said. “Jimin does it just right in my opinion.”

“You do know, I’m not the only one who bakes in the café, right?” Jimin said, attempting to divert attention away from him. Taehyung loved the way the tips of Jimin’s ears were turning pink.

“Oh shut up. Youngjae-hyung and Dowoon-hyung may bake the cookies, but you bake the rest. Give yourself some credit, hyung,” Jeongguk scolded lightly. “And no offense, seonsangnim,” Jeongguk said, turning his attention back to Taehyung. “Croissants are boring. Jimin’s croissants are great, in all honesty, but I didn’t think you’d be the boring type when it comes to pastries. I would have thought you liked eclairs or macaroons.”

“Sometimes boring is enough,” Taehyung said with a smile. “Besides, I don’t order boring beverages, right, Jiminnie?”

“Oh man, that’s right!” Jimin perked up, his eyes turning into crescents. “Jeongguk, remember when I was telling you about that one customer I had who ordered his drink super sweet like you do? It’s Taehyung. He orders a medium of cup of hot chocolate, 100% sugar, and asks for additional caramel and chocolate syrup, with almost every topping served on top of whipped cream.”

“It’s one of my finest work yet,” Taehyung said proudly.

“A fine work of destruction,” Jimin countered.

“It’s a fine piece of work that deserves its place in the menu.”

“It doesn’t so bad if I think about it,” Jeongguk said, smiling softly at Taehyung. “How extra is the extra caramel and chocolate sauce?”

“Ugh,” Jimin rolled his eyes. “Of course you’d be interested in trying. I thought you’d back up with the sugar when you heard about Tae. You guys are seriously making me worried.”

“Well, how extra would you like?” Taehyung found himself leaning forward.

“Extra sweet and sticky,” Jeongguk said, leaning forward as well but keeping his eyes on Taehyung steady.

They were staring into each other and Jeongguk’s eyes were a pair of orbs just daring him to look away.  There had been a pull towards him, Taehyung recognizes. It was something that he could feel the moment the younger made his first appearance since Taehyung sat himself down the table.

Jimin on the other hand, looked back and forth at his companions. He sighed and smacked Jeongguk at the back of the head. “Jeon Jeongguk, what did we talk about?” The spell was broken and Taehyung stared dumbfounded at his friend.

“Ow,” Jeongguk nursed the back of his head. “Did you have to hit that hard?”

“Don’t get too friendly, Jeon Jeongguk. I know you’re type,” Jimin glared. “And you shouldn’t be flirting with your boss’ younger brother.”

 _Right_. (Taehyung wanted to tell Jimin how he had every right to flirt with the younger boy, granted that Jeongguk was _technically_ his soulmate. But he didn’t tell him that because reasons.) Taehyung just rolled his eyes and looked away from Jeongguk because even if Jimin was being an annoying shit at the moment, he had a point. And Taehyung had barely gotten over the fact that Kim Seokjin had caught Taehyung practically stalking his younger brother through the school’s official database (which was a really desperate and very inappropriate move in Taehyung’s part).

“Well, I gotta bounce,” Jeongguk said, standing up and putting on his jacket. “Jin-hyung has been flooding my phone for the past few minutes and I’m going home before he decides to castrate me or something.”

“God, your brother sounds like a mom,” Jimin commented. “I haven’t met the guy yet, but he sounds really overbearing.”

“It’s a good overbearing,” Taehyung smiled. “And you’ll get along quite well if you guys ever meet. You might even bond in the kitchen.”

For some reason or another, Taehyung’s eyes found its way back to Jeon Jeongguk who had been looking back at Taehyung with a smile on his face.

“Well, thank you for having me, seonsangnim, Jimin. It’s been a really nice time,” Jeongguk said with a short bow to Taehyung and a mehrong to Jimin.

“Do you see this gap level of disrespect?!” Jimin outraged but bid the younger goodbye anyway. “Don’t take the scary shortcut you brat!”

Tearing his gaze away, Taehyung watched Jeongguk walk away from their table and out of the restaurant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again.
> 
> How are you?
> 
> I'm fine.
> 
> Besides the fact that I just found out Best of Me has a choreography. Sighh...
> 
> I'm posting this before I head out for my class at 12. Huhu.
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to my little sister who Is kindly lending me here laptop for the meantime.


	9. 09. Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung contemplates on the leap of faith.

**09.**

**Wednesday**

“Okay, Taehyung. SPILL.” Jimin said, literally cornering Taehyung by switching seats and pushing Taehyung to the wall. “There is a lot of tension going on back there and I want to know what is up with that.”

“Dude, Jimin, bro. I just met the guy,” Taehyung said, trying to alleviate the situation and turn the tide. There was no way he was spilling about the soulmate business.

“Yeah, but that didn’t stop you from flirting with the kid. Like I mean, seriously, I knew you had shitty taste in people, but Jeongguk, seriously? That kid is a menace!”

Taehyung scoffed. “Come on, he’s not so bad. And so what if I was flirting with him just a bit? He didn’t seem to mind.”

“Oh my God,” Jimin stared at him wide-eyed. “This is the thirstiest I’ve seen you! How could you go from sulking over Jihan to making passes at younger men which by the way I didn’t think was your type in the first place, real quick? Is this a new thing you’re going for? Did you discover you had a kink that you had no idea you had?”

“Jimin, shut up. It’s not a kink. If you see an attractive person, you have to acknowledge it…and go for it.” Taehyung didn’t really like the sound of that coming out of his mouth. He understood why Jimin was making a big deal out of this because quite frankly, Taehyung wasn’t someone who would make a pass at someone he just met (with few exceptions of course i.e. getting drunk and horny in seedy clubs and bar—which he hasn’t been able to do for a while now). And to be saying promiscuous things was not something Taehyung would say (not when he’s perfectly sober, at least).

“But Jeongguk? Your boss’ brother? Isn’t there like an ethical code for that or something?” Jimin asked. “And he calls you seonsangnim, which makes things a lot worse.”

“Jimin, please. Jeongguk has never once been a student of mine, and I don’t think I’d be breaking any ethical codes somewhere if I ever hooked up with my boss’ brother.”

“Oh my God, so you plan on asking the kid out? Taehyung, I don’t know if you know, but sleeping with the next available person won’t make you a better person than Jihan…if that’s what you’re trying to do,” Jimin said. He was looking worried now, and bless the child’s kind heart, Taehyung took his friend’s hand.

“This is not about getting back at Jihan or whatever, Jimin. There’s nothing going on between me and Jeongguk. I guess you could say that it was just a spur of the moment, and I have to be honest there’s a bit of attraction on my part, but it’s nothing beyond that.” ( _Yet_ , a rebellious voice inside his mind corrected him. He had to bite his tongue from reacting violently against the rogue thought.)

Jimin squeezed Taehyung’s hand. “If you’re sure… But don’t get me wrong, Taehyung. You’re free to like whomever you want or even hook up with whomever you want, but that was just out of character for you and you had me worried for a second there.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes and pinched at his friend’s cheeks. “Don’t worry too much about me, Jiminnie. I can take care of myself just fine.”

He and Jimin didn’t stay out too long. After a few laughs and conversations they had decided to call it a night and go their separate ways. He had to make an effort in dissuading Jimin from walking him home since he didn’t really need to, and because Jimin lived in the opposite direction. He was able to shoo Jimin away in a taxi after a few arguments and Taehyung sighed as the car disappeared around the corner.

Taehyung always had the option to take the subway or even taking a taxi back to his apartment, but he had always opted to walking the whole day. It wasn’t because he was radically trying to save up on funds or that he wasn’t feeling particularly tired. There was something about walking around alone after spending most of the day being surrounded with a lot of people that was relaxing. His apartment most of the time felt suffocating and he felt as if he was forced to deal with every bit of work he had to do every time he was in there. Walking around aimlessly in the streets in the soft hours of the evening was the smallest escape or delay he could find. If he were to romanticize it, walking around was the cheapest thing he could afford in forgetting himself and all the things he had to be responsible for.

But Taehyung wasn’t one to run away for too long. He took a short detour en route to his apartment and was standing on front of his door within a few minutes. Somehow, the idea of God-ssi being present behind the door wasn’t as surprising or unnerving as it should be. The man could appear outside of his apartment if he ever wanted to, but at the end of the day, God-ssi was always in the kitchen cooking up something he thought would bring Tae some form of stress-relief. (Taehyung appreciated it very much, but he wouldn’t admit to that now.)

Once he finally turned the key in, the smell of seaweed soup hit him in a blast, and for a moment entertained the idea of God-ssi burning something inside the kitchen.

“Hey!” God-ssi called from the kitchen. He had probably heard Taehyung come in. “Before you say anything, I’m reheating some soup. Want some?”

“I ate already,” Taehyung said, setting his bag down on the chair on the dining area. God-ssi was wearing a pink apron which Taehyung was uncertain where he got from (he was sure he didn’t own any pink aprons) and he stared with a question in his eyes.

“That’s too bad. This is good soup,” God-ssi said, clearly deflated. But he shrugged it off quickly and wiped his hands on the apron. “So…what do you think of Jeon Jeongguk?”

Taehyung heavily sat himself on the chair. “I really would appreciate it if you gave me a warning before these things happen. I don’t take surprises well, you know.”

“I know full well. But, you guys have met already and clearly you could already tell that he’s your soulmate. Didn’t you feel any mysterious strings tugging you forward? An urge you can’t explain? You know, all that cliché stuff about wanting to kiss the living daylights out of an absolute stranger?”

“Are you making fun of me?” Taehyung cocked a brow as he leaned against his palm on the table. “Or are you making me fun of the clicheness of it all?”

God-ssi smiled. “If I had my way, you wouldn’t have to bear all of it. I feel so sorry you have to be a part of this big cliché that is your life.”

Taehyung scoffed. “Everything is a copy of a copy, if you think of it. To answer your question, yes, I did feel all those things. But that does not necessarily mean that Jeongguk felt the same thing.”

“Don’t put yourself down so quick, bucko. Of course he did,” God-ssi said, pouring some soup into one of the bowls Taehyung owned. “He may be a bit of a fuck boy, but he did. You don’t have to worry about that.” God-ssi placed the bowl on front of Taehyung.

“How sure are you?” Taehyung asked, watching the steam danced around the bowl.  “These weird feelings I might be starting to have are no indication that he’s my soul mate. What makes you think it’s not feelings of mere interest?”

God-ssi sat himself on the empty chair across Taehyung. “You guys were literally made for each other, Taehyung. You two are bound to feel something for the other whether in the smallest ways. Why don’t you just take a leap of faith for once?”

Taehyung stared at the older man. “What Kierkegaard never told you was that taking the leap of faith will cost you everything. And it’s gonna hurt like shit in the end if it doesn’t turn the way things you want them to.”

“Well, isn’t that the reason why it’s called a ‘leap of faith’? You gotta believe it before jumping right into it. It’s something that you lack, apparently.”

Taehyung took a tentative sip from the bowl. “That’s the thing, taking a leap based solely on what faith you have is going to end up bad. It always have.”

“That didn’t stop you from taking leaps in the past, what’s stopping you now?” God-ssi asked, appraising a reaction for the soup. “I don’t really believe you’re hesitating, Tae. It’s okay to be scared you know.”

“You’re asking me to take the leap even though there is no guarantee of me actually making my soulmate fall in love with me. I’m scared that I might fail and end up being alone.”

“You’re more scared of that than the world ending?” God-ssi asked. “How selfish of you,” he said, feigning disgust.

Taehyung scowled at the older man. “Of course I’m scared of that too which makes everything ten times worse now that you’ve pointed it out,” Taehyung groaned.

“You’ve actually taken that leap, haven’t you?” God-ssi leaned forward with a teasing smile on his face. “Even you are no match to the power of the pull.”

“’The power of the pull’? What the heck are you talking about?” Taehyung shook his head in disbelief. “The soup is good by the way.”

“Of course it is,” God-ssi said with a smug smile. “I made it after all.”

“Don’t put yourself so high real quick,” Taehyung narrowed his eyes.  “It’s just soup.”

“Okay.” God-ssi stood up. “But you have a deadline, you have to remember that. And by the pace you’re going, we’re all going to die.”

Taehyung scowled at the older man. “Can you not? I thought love had all the time in the world, you can’t rush me.”

“I can, unfortunately,” God-ssi said with a shrug. “You two might have said your ‘hi’s’ and ‘hello’s’, but your story doesn’t progress from just that.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

God-ssi smirked at him. “It’s because it has been for me, at least.”

“Oh my God, I am not going to hear about your love life or your sex life!” Taehyung looked at the other man in horror. “How do you even get laid with all the shit you’ve been doing? Is that what you do when you disappear at all times?”

“Please, don’t think of me as some sort of promiscuous sex god. Even I have needs, thank you very much.”

“Then what do you do when you’re not busy trying to set me up with Jeon Jeongguk?” Taehyung was genuinely curious for the answer to this one. It’s not everyday you get to ask a god about the things he’s been doing, and about the things he’s been achieving to make the world the place as it is (and Taehyung really had to make an effort to not ask questions like “why do you allow evil to roam in the world?”, “why does suffering exist?”, “why don’t you like anything other than heterosexuality?” but then he had to remind himself that the god he was conversing with at the moment probably wasn’t the biblical god whom everyone was talking about).

“You know, sometimes asking questions is all you do,” God-ssi shook his head at Taehyung.

“My job description is to basically ask questions,” Taehyung deadpanned. “And I’m genuinely curious, so please, enlighten me.”

“My job description basically tells me to be mysterious and that includes shutting up about everything about my past or about myself in general and that includes my everyday activities that may or may not directly have anything to do with you. I’m required to drop very vague hints and information about myself every now and then to increase my level of anonymity and to further confuse you about the circumstances and give you a very small inkling as to what you’re a part of.”

Taehyung blinked at the older man. “I think that’s a very accurate description.”

“It definitely is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello...
> 
> As you can tell I edited the chapters again (that will be the last time I swear!) and you can go ahead and read them again if you like. Nothing major changed... except for the fact that I've slowed the story just a bit. And now we're going to be here for a long while.
> 
> Anyways... See you in the next update (that's weird, can I even see you?)
> 
> P.S. The concept of 'leap of faith' was coined by Soren Kierkegaard, and he's known to be the father of existentialism. The concept basically just says that you gotta believe in something with all of your heart and all of your mind to be able to take that leap, even without knowing if it's going to end up good or bad for you. You're taking that leap as a sign of your strong faith about something (in Kierkegaard's context, he's talking about religion).
> 
> P.P.S. That's a very rough description of what the concept means and it's my understanding of it at least. So if you want to learn more about it, go ahead and do your research. (I took Contemporary Philo like two or three semesters ago so I forget).


	10. 10. Thursday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they bond.

**10.**

**Thursday**

Taehyung had checked his email last night and true enough to Yoongi’s words, he had received an email from the photography seniors. Taehyung had to be honest and say that he had no idea what he thought about the whole thing. Sure he was flattered that the students wanted him to be a part of their project (albeit the second choice), and he was flattered that they thought he was good enough to be a part of it, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he could do it.

He had a tendency to just doubt everything that he could do if that wasn’t obvious enough. But when he thought about it, all he had to do was stand on front of the camera and look pretty while the students had to do all the tedious work of working up his make-up, choosing the costumes, and finally editing the final output. Taehyung has never modelled for anyone before (if you exclude the many family pictures he was obligated to take with his parents and siblings) and technically, he was allowed to be nervous about the whole thing. Then again, that is, if he agreed to do it.

The letter the students had given him had given him a week long confirmation period, and had even included the benefits of working along with their project. (Well, aside from having his face published in the pages of their output, he’d be having free food during the shoots and quite possibly after, and they even went as far as saying that it was good publicity for the philosophy department which Taehyung couldn’t resist the urge to roll his eyes at.)

(God-ssi had been laughing his ears off when he found out about the proposal and if he had laughed even harder, Taehyung would have already been offended, but apparently, the older man just found a typical grammar error within the letter and found that funny.

“University level students shouldn’t be making that mistake!” he had reasoned while gasping for air.

“Give them a break, you nazi.”)

If he really were to be honest to himself, Taehyung had already made up his mind to do it. Because, really, it seemed fun, and it was something he hasn’t done before so why not do it? Besides, Jin-hyung had been asking him the whole morning since he arrived in the faculty if he had made up his mind to do it, and even went as far as saying that it was going to help his “Kookie” a lot and that he shouldn’t be worried about his face coming out harshly because “Kookie” did a wonderful job at everything he does. (That was another level of doting on Seokjin’s part, Taehyung thought, and that Seokjin-hyung and Jimin were definitely going to get along if they ever met.)

And the idea of getting to pose for Jeon Jeongguk with the same gaze he had given Taehyung the night before was enough to excite the older man against his better judgment. (Taehyung suspected that there was some low-key dominance waiting to be unleashed within the younger boy and Taehyung had to literally slap himself away from delving too much into the thought.)

Whatever he was feeling for the younger boy, and Taehyung refuses to call it the effect of “the pull”, he needed to keep it in check. He wasn’t entirely sure about it, needless to say. It was a strange attraction and Taehyung was creeped out by its level of intensity.

He had bought a few cupcakes from Calico Cat that morning, and he wasn’t able to eat them since he found himself running late with a few of his classes. He was only able to return to the faculty a little after lunch break. As he threw himself on his chair, he let himself sag like a sack of potatoes as he sighed at the number of classes he still had left.

“Taehyung-kun!” Nana-san came knocking at his cubicle and Taehyung instantly straightened himself out.

“Yes, Nana-san?” Taehyung smiled at the older woman who looked better than the last time he’d seen her last.

“Thank you for standing in my place last Tuesday. You’re a life-saver you know that?” Nana said, placing a small box of pastries on his desk. “And here’s a few sweets as my token of appreciation. I heard that you love sweet things.”

Taehyung glanced down at the box and saw that it was from Calico Cat. He smiled at the box and thanked Nana-san. (He was assessing his memories if he ever had mentioned the café at some point because damn if he didn’t, he felt super proud of Jimin for having a growing business like Calico Cat.)

Taehyung could only nod and thank the older woman. The older faculty stepped out of his cubicle after that and Taehyung was left with the box of sweets that was the form of Nana-san’s gratitude (really, if everyone was just as kindhearted as Nana-san he would be doing everyone a favor if they’d let him).

“Ah, how lucky!” Seokjin appeared out of nowhere. The older man was staring at the box of sweets on his desk. “The last time I received a gift was from a student. They were my thesis advisees, see, and they worked hard on their thesis for just one semester. They ended up getting best thesis that year, if I could recall correctly.”

“How do you forget students getting an award?” Taehyung asked, opening the box and offering some of the candies inside.

Seokjin took two or three pieces of the sweets and thanked Taehyung with a nod. “Between you and me, I’ve had a lot of advisees who had gotten the best thesis award,” Seokjin said with a proud smile. “I don’t forget, and it’s not because I’ve had a lot, it’s because I try to remember every one of students whether or not they’re the brightest.”

Taehyung smiled in awe. “You must be really proud then, hyung.”

“Of course I am. Even if this school is sucking every bit of my soul dry, it’s the students that make it all worth it,” Seokjin sighed in contentment. “Anyway, how’s your day so far?”

Taehyung had to shrug. “The usual. It’s almost finals so there’s a lot to do.”

“I know what you mean, I haven’t even gotten more than half of our syllabus in most of my classes,” Seokjin lamented. “Have you decided to do the modelling thingy for Kookie’s class? I heard Jinyoung agreed to do it.”

“Of course he did, hyung. He’s like you, you know. He knows he’s attractive.”

“Why, thank you, Taehyung,” Seokjin smiled with an eye wiggle. “But you’re not bad looking yourself, you know. Kookie said that you were attractive. And you had dinner with him last night?” that wasn’t actually a question.

“Oh,” Taehyung blushed. “We have a mutual friend. I didn’t know he was friends with Jeongguk.”

“Hmm,” Seokjin sounded amused. “JK doesn’t want me snooping around his private life, but I can’t help it you know. I’m his older brother and I guess that’s just natural.”

“Oh, I know what you mean,” Taehyung said. And he did, getting his experiences as the oldest of three siblings himself. “My younger brother is still in high school and he’s still in his emo phase.”

Seokjin laughed. “JK hasn’t grown out of his yet,” he said, laughing harder. He placed a firm hand on Taehyung’s shoulder once he had calmed down.

“I don’t mind you guys hanging out more, you know,” Seokjin said, looking at Taehyung straight in the eye. “JK is a bit of a philanderer but he’s a good kid. He’s lonely and he won’t admit it.”

Taehyung almost choked. Was his technical boss just giving him his blessing in dating his brother? Was this an encouragement even? Taehyung stared blankly at the older man who looked dead serious about the conversation they were having. Taehyung blinked and waited for the older man to deliver the punchline. Seokjin was known for his awful jokes (and Taehyung had to admit that he had his good ones as well) afterall.

“I’m not kidding, Tae,” Seokjin chuckled, patting Taehyung on the shoulder. “You’re actually a good person and JK wouldn’t stop asking questions about you. And he’s never been this interested in a person besides Yoongi. You should feel honoured.”

“I, um… okay?” Taehyung was unsure of what to say. “Thank you?”

“Don’t think too much about it okay? And don’t tell Kookie. He might swap my toothpaste and shaving cream if he finds out.” Seokjin gave Taehyung a final pat on the shoulder before grabbing a handful of sweets from the box. He departed with a wink and into his own cubicle.

If it weren’t for the fact that he had another class, Taehyung would have stood there the whole day trying to comprehend what had just happened.

The day rolled by quickly and before Taehyung knew it, his classes had ended and he was finally en route to the faculty to grab his bag, and probably go to Calico Cat for a hot chocolate before he went home to finish the rest of his work. But the day hasn’t ended by a long shot for Taehyung. Not even twenty-four hours after seeing Jeon Jeongguk last, the younger was standing outside the faculty seemingly waiting for someone.

“Jeongguk-ssi,” Taehyung greeted as he approached the faculty door. “Isn’t Seokjin-hyung inside?”

Jeongguk shook his head. “He’s not answering any of my texts. I don’t usually come to the faculty to visit him but…”

“I think he mentioned having another sudden meeting with the college dean this afternoon,” Taehyung explained. “I don’t know when it ends though, I’m sorry.”

Jeongguk waved it off. “No it’s okay seonsangnim.”

“Is it urgent, if I may ask?” Taehyung said, taking a step closer towards the younger boy.

The photography major shook his head again. “Not really. I think I put my flashdrive into his bag by mistake this morning. I’m not sure though and I don’t want to pull hyung out of meeting for that.”

“Do you want to wait for him? It’s a sudden meeting anyway, so I don’t think it’ll last too long,” Taehyung found himself saying. “And I got some cupcakes from Calico this morning which I haven’t got a chance to taste yet.”

“Um… is that an invitation?” Jeongguk asked tentatively, fidgeting with the straps of his bag.

“Only if it’s okay with you,” Taehyung dismissed quickly. They fell into a silence and Taehyung suddenly felt insecure. Was he too forward?

“Um… did you get the double chocolate fudge cupcakes?” Jeongguk asked slowly and Taehyung blinked and think about the question before comprehending it fully.

“Oh, yeah. I actually did… and I got the cheesecake one too,” Taehyung smiled. He was surprised when Jeongguk returned it, albeit shyly.

“Then,” Jeongguk coughed. “Is it okay to eat it with you?”

Taehyung smiled wider and offered a welcoming gesture into the faculty instead. “After you.”

This was okay, wasn’t it? He had invited him in as the new friend and nothing else. Jeongguk wasn’t his student technically since Taehyung had only ever encountered the boy through other people. And it was weird how he only ever got to interact with him considering that they both knew the same people. So it was okay to be seen hanging out with him, right? (And if it were going to progress from that, it was okay to be seen holding hands with him? Touching him affectionately? Exchanging pecks and kisses? But he was getting a little too ahead of himself, wasn’t he? It doesn’t hurt to dream, Taehyung told himself.)

The younger boy took the other chair inside Taehyung’s cubicle, and he instantly offered the cupcakes to Jeongguk. He let him choose while he went to the small kitchen adjacent to the bigger room to grab a plates and cutlery. When he came back, Jeongguk had told him it was okay to share and the small shy smile he beamed at Taehyung was enough to let his heart flutter in the smallest, most content ways possible.

If it was okay to start falling in love so fast at this point, Taehyung still wouldn’t admit it.


	11. 11. Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Park Jinyoung has evil students.

**11.**

**Friday**

They had spent a good hour just talking about a lot of stuff while waiting for Seokjin. The cupcakes had been long finished when Taehyung finally found out how much of a big fan boy Jeongguk was over Big Bang and IU, how much he loved jajangmyeon almost to a passion, and even how much he adored Seokjin-hyung although he didn’t want to show off too much of it. It was adorable how he closed of the sparkle in his eyes when he spoke of his older brother in an attempt of indifference. They had a surface level conversation about almost everything, and it almost like a breach past a certain stage of friendship. Perhaps it was a chance to shake off all feelings of awkwardness and shyness. (Because, after all, Taehyung knew and he felt that they were going to see much of each other a lot in the next few days. And if things were going to go well just like this then, perhaps it was going to take no time at all to get the younger boy fall in love with him.)

They had even begun consuming the box of sweets Nana-san got him and by this time, it was only Taehyung and a handful of professors inside the faculty room. They didn’t seem to mind that he was conversing loudly with a student inside his cubicle. Minjae had dropped by before leaving ahead and he gave Taehyung a funny look before he stepped out of the room. (But to be honest, it was a good funny look.) Nana-san had bowed several times when she learnt Jeongguk was the infamous younger brother of Kim Seokjin (because really, everyone who worked with Seokjin never ever didn’t hear about his darling brother). The whole interaction caused the younger boy to get flustered to a point his ears turned red (and at this point, Taehyung was already getting an idea on how adorable Jeongguk can be without even trying. God, Jeongguk was going to be the death of him someday).

But unfortunately, that good hour had to end when Jeongguk’s cellphone rang and he had told Taehyung it was Seokjin-hyung. The photography student had excused himself to answer the call and Taehyung was left alone to clean up the plates and the few wrappers littered on his desk. There was that ‘pull’ again, and he had this feeling of contentment just washing through him. It was getting creepy, if Taehyung had to be honest. He didn’t feel so strongly about a person he just met and he was suddenly reminded of his short conversation with God-ssi about leaps of faith. God-ssi had asked him whether he had taken that leap and Taehyung hadn’t been able to answer.

But if he were going to answer the question now, he would say he has. He has with a blinding amount of faith.

Jeongguk came back just as Taehyung was about to put the dishes back into the kitchen.

“Everything good?” Taehyung asked, setting the plates down as Jeongguk nodded but remained standing by the cubicle entrance.

“Hyung wanted to thank you for accompanying me. He’s got his stuff with him and the meeting was dragging longer than he expected,” Jeongguk explained. “He asked me to meet up with him instead.”

“Oh it’s no big deal…” Taehyung said, finding the crumbs on the small plate suddenly interesting. “I guess I wasted a bit of your time,” Taehyung chuckled.

“No, you haven’t,” Jeongguk said, smiling reassuringly at the older man. “If you ask me, I think I wasted a bit of your time… but I had a great time just talking and whatever…”

“I had a great time as well, Jeongguk-ssi,” Taehyung said, finally looking at the younger straight in the eye.

“Well, thank you for the cupcakes…seonsangnim,” Jeongguk said with a bow.

“I think we’re past the excessive formalities, don’t you think?” Taehyung tested. “I mean, you can call me hyung…if you’d like.”

The smile on the younger’s face grew wider. “Then if it’s okay with you, I’d like it if you dropped the –ssi as well.”

“Okay then, Jeongguk-ah.”

Taehyung felt like a teenage girl in some coming-of-age film where she meets her first love. It was ridiculous but the feeling was there. And it was still there even after Jeongguk had left to meet his older brother at another building. It was still there when Taehyung was on his way home. It was still there when God-ssi looked at him with a knowing smile on his face when he got to his apartment. And it was still there when he was in bed after working a few hours checking papers and reviewing lesson plans.

“Damn,” Taehyung muttered as he squealed discreetly as he can manage into his pillow at some point in the night. (He couldn’t sleep and if God-ssi knew about it, he’d probably never hear the end of it.)

Taehyung woke up the next morning with a very good mood and it wasn’t hard to see why. God-ssi had been lounging on his couch with a newspaper and he shook his head at the aura Taehyung was exuding. But he didn’t say anything as Taehyung got ready for work.

“Be careful, Tae…” God-ssi had bade from the doorway. It made Taehyung narrow his eyes at the older man but he shrugged it off and went on his way.

Once he had gotten to the faculty room, Taehyung had been suddenly reminded that he had yet to write a confirmation for the whole modelling gig. He had been more excited for the whole thing now that he had grown closer to Jeongguk. And since Jinyoung-hyung was going to be there, Taehyung thought it was going to be less of a bore if it was ever going to be one if he had someone to talk to.

He didn’t have morning classes on Fridays, and he took his time writing up the confirmation reply in his cubicle. After sending the reply after rereading it for at least thirty minutes, he shut his laptop down and left the faculty. He hadn’t seen Seokjin-hyung all morning, and Taehyung could only guess that the older man had misinterpreted his work schedule again. It was really tough trying to juggle work and his PH.D. processings at the same time.

Taehyung had met a few teachers he’d deem his friends in the university and he’d visit them if he had time. Minjae had a full packed schedule on Fridays unfortunately, so he couldn’t seek him out for a short lunch break outside the campus. The walk to the Literature department wasn’t as long when you were already used to the distance and Taehyung had trekked the distance for a good number of times now.

The Literature department was located in the second floor of the Humanities building and Taehyung could spot a few of his students and had-been students as he made his way towards the room at the end of the hall. It was no surprise to have a few humanities students enrolling in philosophy classes, seeing that there was a blurry line between the two things. It was the same blurry line that plagued the History department as well.

He had spotted Park Jinyoung in no time when he stuck his head inside the faculty. He knocked politely on the open door to catch the attention of said man, who was eyeing his pigeon hole with disdain.

“I hope you didn’t find a dead cockroach in there or something,” Taehyung chuckled.

Jinyoung scowled at him. “No, I’m rather disappointed at how lacking it seems to be. I was expecting an overflowing shelf. My students had a deadline.”

“Oh, tough,” Taehyung hissed.

Jinyoung groaned. Taehyung could only pat him on the back in sympathy. “What brings you here to this side of campus?”

Taehyung shrugged. “I don’t have classes until this afternoon. I was looking for a lunch buddy.”

“How kind of you to consider me, Taehyung,” Jinyoung smiled as he leaned against the pigeonholes. “I’m not too hungry though. So let’s just head to school cafeteria or something.”

“Sounds good,” Taehyung obliged. Jinyoung let Taehyung lead the way as he began complaining about the apparent deadline he had given his students.

“It’s a writing exercise, right? And you know that I’m teaching what I know to future fiction writers of tomorrow, but the thing is I don’t think these kids know what they got themselves into,” Jinyoung huffed. His plump lips forming a pout. “It’s like they think they’re better than me, as if there’s nothing I can teach them.”

“If it’s any consolation, some of my students think the same way towards me. Is it because we’re too young?” Taehyung mused as he shoved his hands into his pockets. They were approaching the school cafeteria.

“I’ve been careful about crossing that line between friends and teachers, you know? It’s been a nice balance between messing around and being strict. Some of these kids thinks I’m not being serious enough. I’ve already extended the deadline before and the hell if they’re expecting another one after this stunt they pulled.”

Taehyung could only sympathize. It was one of the cons of being so close of age to the students. They thought it was all fun and games and that every fuck-up they did was going to pass without serious repercussions. It was moments like this that Taehyung felt like throwing a tantrum and he knew Jinyoung felt the same too. Taehyung sighed as he pushed the cafeteria doors for Jinyoung. “Well, a deadline is a deadline and if they can’t respect that, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Failing remarks it is,” Jinyoung sighed with a shrug. “I just can’t believe this is the kids of tomorrow we’re talking about. They’ll be ruling our country someday, can you believe that?” Jinyoung sneered.

“Hey, we’re not that old,” Taehyung scowled his hyung.

Jinyoung just laughed. “We are. But apparently young enough to be considered as good models for a final project.”

“Admit it, you accepted the role the second they told you about it,” Taehyung nudged at the older man.

“What can I say, I am a bit shameless about my looks,” he smirked at Taehyung.

“You should be more attentive to your students respecting you for your intellect rather than your looks.”

“That’s a low blow, man.” Jinyoung said it without malice. “But I’m actually really excited for this whole thing.”

“Well, I actually am too.”

“So you’re doing it?” Jinyoung asked, pleasantly surprised.

Taehyung shrugged. “It seems fun. And it gives me a good excuse to slack off on the lesson plans.”

Jinyoung laughed, covering his mouth with his hand. “I was hoping Seokjin-hyung was going to accept it at first. It would honestly be an experience to watch him and Yoongi-hyung being forced to get along for the sake of the students.” They both took their places in a small line.

“I’m sure that they’ll be able to set their differences aside for professionalism. Seokjin-hyung isn’t anything if it isn’t dedicated and professional.”

“I believe that, really I do. I’ve heard some rumors that Seokjin-hyung used to pose for Yoongi-hyung back when they were in college,” Jinyoung said in a whisper as he grabbed two trays for the both of them.

“I thought you said they never clicked in the first place?” Taehyung’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“That’s what I’m intrigued about,” Jinyoung said with an amused glint to his eye. “I’ve been eating a lot of cake these days. Want the chocolate one?” the older one offered. Taehyung had to decline. He was fond of sweet stuff, sure, but he had to watch his sugar intake after all. He had almost finished a whole box of sweets yesterday with Jeongguk.

“Oh well,” Jinyoung shrugged as he put two plates of two different cake flavors on his tray. “Anyway, I have two or three photography students enrolled in one of my classes, and I’ll be sure to give them hell for not submitting on time. The nerve,” he grumbled as he took a bottle of water out of the display.

“You’re the pettiest person I’ve ever met, seriously hyung,” Taehyung chuckled, grabbing a few sandwiches.

“We’re supposed to make it a challenge, Taehyung-ah. And I’ll make it especially hard for Jeon Jeongguk. I heard he’s Yoongi-hyung’s protégé. I hear people telling me he’s got a spot already saved in Yoongi’s studio after he graduates.”

“Where do you get these hear-says?” Taehyung asked, genuinely curious. Jinyoung was a never ending source of gossip. “And don’t tell me you have little birdies around campus?”

“Gossip makes this university life bearable,” Jinyoung waved nonchalantly. “Besides, you’ve seen Jeongguk’s work, I’m sure. And it’s good enough to be a professional.”

“Well, he is good, I’ll give him that.” Taehyung shrugged.

“Are you sure it’s not just your bias talking?” Jinyoung teased once they paid for their food. “A little birdie did tell me you’ve been hanging out with him as of late.”

“Oh my God, hyung, how would you know that?” Taehyung asked, he could feel his face burning in embarrassment.

Jinyoung laughed maniacally. “I see good tea when I see it.” And he never did elaborate on that even if Taehyung asked incessantly throughout the whole lunch break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lovely some of you have been wishing me luck on my laptop issue from earlier this year. And I appreciate the concern even if I'm just some stranger ranting about irrelevant problems lol :* 
> 
> Anyway, my dad bought me a laptop some point during the past few months. And although I had to work with the family computer for a better part of the semester, I made it work apparently. (And good God, I've had my best grades so far hoorah for me I guess?)
> 
> Thank you once again for all you lovely readers who have been waiting patiently for this story. It took a while, and I'm glad to see that there are some of you are excited for the new chapters. (It's nice that you haven't abandoned it when I have for a few months huhu I want to hug you all!)
> 
> And like I said in the previous author's note, I edited the chapters so check it out if you're feeling a bit lost about the recent updates. (I myself had to read back to actually work on the rough outline I had come with that was rotting somewhere--the tech guys who checked out my laptop did miracles and were able to retrieve most of my files so hoorah for them too~!)
> 
> See you guys in the next update~


	12. 12. Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jeon Jeongguk is not amused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I honestly love Park Jinyoung and his saltiness. There was no way I wasn't going add his character because seriously, if I worked in a workplace like Taehyung's, I would want to have someone like Park Jinyoung just lighting up the place.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy a (lowkey) jealous Jeongguk though~
> 
> :3

**12.**

**Friday**

There was a reason why Taehyung didn’t like eating at the university cafeteria. Although generally, there was good food in there, and the tables and chairs were comfortable (in fact, there was a separate lounge for teachers to eat in but it was currently under renovation so they had to settle for the other chairs and tables). Sure the cafeteria was an easier access of food and all that, but it was much too crowded for Taehyung’s liking. He’d never eat there alone, that’s for sure. He’d never be able to find the courage to sit in one of the tables there amidst all the students (that either were enrolled in his classes or not) unless he had someone to sit down with, preferably someone who was also part of the teaching staff in the university. So he wasn’t really complaining when he accepted the cafeteria for lunch with Jinyoung-hyung. But sitting there with a few familiar faces seated sporadically in the dining hall reminded Taehyung of the reason why he didn’t like the cafeteria in the first place.

But knowing Jinyoung-hyung, he was probably basking in the attention. For as long as he’d known the older man, the dude knew he was attractive and he made sure to flaunt it whenever he can. The invitation alone for the photoshoot had probably boosted the older’s ego, but Taehyung couldn’t help but be amused by it. Sure he joked around and said that Jinyoung prioritized his looks over the recent problems he’s been having over his students (and really, Taehyung had never seen Jinyoung coming to class looking dishevelled and even Seokjin had come into work looking like he just rolled out of bed), but Taehyung knew that Jinyoung actually really cared whether or not his students were learning something from him.

“My good looks is just a bonus,” he remembered Jinyoung telling him that one time.

But right now, Jinyoung was actually feeling a bit better about the missed deadline now that there were blatant stares coming from all directions. It made Taehyung’s ear turn pink because really, he wasn’t someone who wanted a lot of attention. But he tried his best to pretend as if the stares didn’t bother him.

“Have you ever tried modelling before?” Jinyoung asked as he munched on his cake. They were talking about a recent novel Jinyoung had read (it reminded him of Taehyung, he said and he wanted to know what Taehyung thought about it if ever came upon it) when the conversation had suddenly turned towards the impending photoshoot.

Taehyung shook his head. “No. I’d rather be behind the camera and if I were to be honest, I’m not even really good at taking pictures. How about you?”

Jinyoung nodded. “I’ve never been photographed professionally, if that’s what you mean. But I did pose for a few of my friends back in college. I had a need for the extra money.”

“I have a feeling you’d be a natural at it,” Taehyung said. “You just have the face for it, I guess.”

Jinyoung scoffed. “Taehyung, have you looked in front of the mirror lately? I’m not really sure if you’re being falsely modest or if you’re just being plain stupid, but you, my dear friend, have a face that doesn’t belong in this scene.”

“What do you mean, hyung?” Taehyung scowled.

“If I were to put it bluntly, you have a face of an idol. And if you were to be groomed properly, I have a feeling you’ll have everyone eating right out of your palm,” Jinyoung explained. “And that’s saying something, coming from me.”

“Hyung, don’t overestimate me. I’m not that good-looking,” Taehyung said looking down at his sandwich.

“I want to hit you right now,” Jinyoung shook his head. “Like seriously, I’m beginning to think that the only way of putting some sense of self-worth into your head is by swiping your face against a mirror.”

“Hyung, that’s gross.”

“Oh trust me, I’m beginning to consider it,” Jinyoung said with a seriousness that makes Taehyung nervous. “Anyway, I’m spotting some students of mine who aren’t really being discreet about not wanting to be seen by me,” Jinyoung scowled at a general direction which Taehyung guesses are where his students are.

“Hyung, don’t glare at them,” Taehyung reprimanded amusingly. Jinyoung had this particular glare dedicated to people he just doesn’t like. He’s seen Jinyoung give it to some of his coworkers in the literature department and a few students as well. It’s meant to be menacing (and Taehyung supposes that it is if he were ever to be subject to that particular look—and thankfully he hasn’t as of yet), but in an outsider’s perspective it was actually quite comical.

“Good afternoon, seonsaengnim,” a lively voice interrupted Taehyung’s train of thoughts and finally broke Jinyoung out of his glaring. It was really funny to see Jinyoung go from glaring daggers at his students to smiling innocently at their new guest so quick. There were two or three students standing by their table and Taehyung wasn’t familiar to any of them not until Jinyoung greeted them and pointed out that they were one of the photography seniors. Taehyung nodded in understanding and greeted them appropriately.

“Oh hello, Jeongguk,” Taehyung greeted upon seeing the younger boy just standing at the back of the small crowd. Jeongguk smiled in acknowledgement, putting a hand up as if a small wave.

“Hi, hyung,” he greeted shyly. Taehyung couldn’t help feel giddy about the honorific slipping off the younger’s mouth. Did he say it differently or was Taehyung just being the lovesick puppy he was becoming these days?

The little group was surprised with the honorific as well but decided not to pay no mind to it, as they proceeded in telling them how excited they were about working with them. While Jinyoung was shamelessly relished on the praises, Taehyung smiled shyly at them. He didn’t really think he was well-known amongst the students especially considering that not a lot of students enrolled in philosophy classes (except for the philosophy majors of course and that proved to be few in number as well), but he had to admit he was a bit flattered with the amount of enthusiasm the students were displaying about working with him.

And Jeongguk remained silent throughout the whole thing. (Taehyung didn’t want to admit that he had been stealing glances at the boy, and he really did try to control himself since it was awfully rude to not be looking at the people he was currently talking to. And it made things worse when the kids were trying to tell him how enthusiastic they were at planning what to do with their shoots and etc.

But Taehyung couldn’t help notice Jeongguk evidently chewing on the inside of his cheek. He was rolling his eyes at his friends who were gushing about Taehyung’s good looks and despite the embarrassment, Taehyung was worried that Jeongguk was angry about something.)

“I have a few friends who enrolled in your Ethics class a few semesters ago and they were much more tolerable that time,” the boy—Yugyeom?—said with a laugh. “They appreciated the fact that you didn’t spend months discussing Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics by the way.”

“I would never subject them to reading the whole thing. Even I had a hard time when I had to read it for undergrad school,” Taehyung said, chuckling.

“You have a really nice laugh, seongsaengnim,” one of the girls told Taehyung. She was blushing as she said so and Taehyung could only thank her with the same amount of flustering. He reflexively glanced at Jeongguk who was already glaring at his female companion.

“Are you alright, Jeongguk-ah?” Taehyung couldn’t help asking. Jeongguk looked at Taehyung and sighed.

“We’re going to be late for class, actually,” Jeongguk said, an edge to his tone. His companions violently whipped their heads towards him.

“We still have time, Jeonggguk,” the boy said, patting him on the shoulder. “We’re not gonna be late.”

“Yes we are, don’t you remember Yoongi-seonsaengnim saying that we had to be in class ten minutes earlier?” Jeongguk said menacingly.

“Oh shit, you’re right,” the girl exclaimed. “You don’t have to be mean about it, Jeonggukie.”

Jeongguk shook his head. “You shouldn’t be flirting with the teachers, Jihyo,” he spat and Taehyung had to look at Jeongguk with disbelief, because althought Taehyung was still guilty and embarrassed to initiate anything, Jeongguk was in no position to be scolding his friend about flirting with teachers.

Jeongguk caught Taehyung giving him a look and he instantly turned a shade darker.

“It’s fine,” Jinyoung cut in. “It was harmless, Jeongguk-ah, don’t worry,” he said, complete with an innocent wink.

“Yes, it’s okay. We’re all looking forward to working with you,” Taehyung said, smiling at the students who excused themselves. Jeongguk bowed respectfully to the two.

When they finally left the two teachers alone, the lunch hour was nearly ending and Taehyung hadn’t gotten around half his sandwich and Jinyoung didn’t feel like eating the remaining slice of cake he had yet to finish. But the older was looking at Taehyung funny.

“What?” Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows at his hyung.

“You’re not dating anyone right now, are you?” Jinyoung asked.

“Why the sudden interest, hyung? I thought you and Jaebum-hyung were going great,” Taehyung attempted to tease.

“Oh we are. It’s been perfect so far… Has Jeon Jeongguk ever been your student?” Jinyoung asked again, not distracted with the question about him and Jaebum (and that was weird because normally, Jinyoung would gush about Jaebum any chance he gets. He tries to be calm about it, but Taehyung and his other friends knew that he was a sucker for his boyfriend and that he loved bragging about him).

“No,” Taehyung straightened himself out, and cursing himself because Jinyoung notices almost everything.

“Okay. Is that why he calls you ‘hyung’?”

“It’s not wrong to be friends with a student, Jinyoung-hyung,” Taehyung defended. “And we have a lot of mutual friends so it seems.”

“So it seems,” Jinyoung nodded very slowly, displaying so much sarcasm. “Don’t you think it’s just weird that you guys know all the same people and yet you guys just recently met? I mean, that is the story between you two, right?”

Taehyung nodded. Well, their story was deeper than that, but how can Taehyung ever explain that? “I’ve thought about it, but it’s not a big deal.”

Jinyoung seemed unconvinced but decided not to ask further about it. He picked up his cake and stood up. “By the way, do you have any plans tonight?”

“Tonight? Just work, I guess. Why?” Taehyung asked as he picked up his sandwich.

“Jaebum and I were thinking of going out tonight. He’s been stressed about work lately and I figured that he’d love to see a familiar face,” Jinyoung smiled. “You can skip on work for once and I for one, have nothing to work on because my students are conspirators.”

Taehyung laughed. “I mean, if you guys are going for light drinking, then I guess I could tag along.”

Jinyoung patted Taehyung on the shoulder. “It’s settled then, you’re third wheeling for the night.”

“Haha.”

“I’ll text you the details later, now walk me to my department.”

“So demanding hyung, I don’t know how Jaebum-hyung puts up with you,” Taehyung clicked his tongue. “And his cats. I don’t know how he does it. Nora was already such a handful.”

“He’s gotten two more, you know. So I have to deal with five cats whenever I go visit him in his apartment. I swear, he’s like the male version of a cat lady,” Jinyoung said with a sigh.

Taehyung chuckled. “Except he has you. So you guys are like a cat couple or something.”

“I love Jaebum, I really do. But sometimes I think he loves those cats more than he does me. He remembers to buy them kibble and extra sand for their litter box, and he’s managed not to remember my favourite book.”

“Hyung, knowing you, your favourite book changes like, constantly.”

“That’s the thing. It’s nearly impossible for me to choose a favourite book, and he still tries to guess anyway.”

“It sucks to be you, hyung,” Taehyung patted him on the shoulder, sarcastically sympathetic.

“My life is full of idiots, I swear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kind of fixed my outline and I am predicting thirty or so chapters. Yep. I'm thinking of splitting the whole story and make it into a series, because damn, I love slow burn but I don't think it's appropriate for this fic to have more than thirty chapters.
> 
> But then again, that's just me.
> 
> I'm going to be deciding on a posting schedule starting next week I guess. (I've only had like one week of vacation and now I have to prepare for another semester...ugh.)
> 
> Anyways, what do you think of the story so far?


	13. 13. Friday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung finds a curiosity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 13 is entitled Friday. Ooohh
> 
> Well, this chapter doesn't have too much dialogue in it. In other words, it's mostly word vomit.

**13.**

**Friday**

The last time Taehyung went into a bar or a club with the intention of getting drunk and just letting go for one night was during his first days employed as an instructor in the university. It was one of those times where he was feeling the post-graduate depression of not knowing what to do, where to go, or why he was doing what he was doing in the first place. Going to get inebriated was an attempt to just escape all that but in the end Taehyung realized that he had to face everything eventually.

He never liked going into clubs mainly because Taehyung didn’t like crowded places. The first time he had gotten into a bar, he had left within ten minutes already feeling claustrophobic and suffocated. His friends who he was with at the time didn’t appreciate it very much, but they didn’t like the way how panicked Taehyung looked being inside the establishment. He’s been to clubs a few times after that, already having getting used to it gradually, but if he were given a choice, he’d prefer not going to clubs at all.

He appreciated bars more. It was less crowded, and quieter. And it was more his scene, Taehyung liked to believe. So whenever people invited him for a night out, he’d always make sure that they were on the same page. Drinking was drinking whatever place they were (unless of course, if you’re looking for a new friends and a nightly hook-up), and Taehyung had always liked the idea of drinking in private places (hence why he decided to drink his night away in the corners of his apartment rather than in some badly-lit bar where anyone could be witness to his pathetic state).

That is why Taehyung really appreciated it when he checked his phone and saw Jinyoung telling him about a new bar that opened a pleasant distance away from the university and that Jaebum insisted he wanted to check out. Taehyung took a mental note to give Jaebum-hyung a high five because Jinyoung was the type to go clubbing even if he was a well-respected professor in a (somewhat) prestigious university. (He liked attention, so what?) And Jaebum knew Taehyung didn’t like going to parties and the like because that was one thing they shared and bonded over when they were in college. (And there were those instances where Jaebum had to pick Taehyung up from a house party or a club as per request of the younger who couldn’t take the scene of bodies just mixing up in every space possible or maybe because Taehyung was having a Nietzsche phase during those times and felt like the whole party scene wasn’t as life-fulfilling as people made them out to be).

Taehyung had a tendency to just accept almost any invitation given to him if he was feeling it and hence he didn’t really think things through. He had been slumped with newly submitted chapters for checking and advising and he just couldn’t follow Jinyoung’s suggestion of putting it off for one more night. (One of their senior faculty had gotten a medical leave for an indefinite time, and the thesis advisees he currently had had to be divided and distributed to the other members of the faculty. In addition to the three Taehyung was currently advising, he had received another three, and one of the students delved on a topic Taehyung wasn’t all too favourable for. But he thinks he’s pretty lucky in comparison to Seokjin who was forced to take up more than ten advisees). He had forgotten that he had given his advisees a deadline for that day and he was surprised and reminded of his demise to see his pigeonhole filled with inch long chapters waiting to be read and marked.

He had considered cancelling with Jinyoung and Jaebum, but he wasn’t really a guy to back out on invitations. And he really did feel like seeing Jaebum since he hasn’t seen or talked to him since a few times after graduation. The only reason why he’s been up to date with him lately was because he had begun dating Jinyoung and he hasn’t really even gotten around talking to him directly.

Seokjin whistled when he saw Taehyung come in with the papers in hand. He dejectedly placed them on his table with a heavy thud and he sighed, looking around for a paper bag.

“Do you give your advisees the same deadlines?” Seokjin asked, sticking his head out from his cubicle.

“I’m beginning to think it’s a bad idea,” Taehyung chuckled humourlessly.

Seokjin chuckled. “Well, at least you get to do them all in one go.”

“I mean, I don’t have to check them all in one go, right?” Taehyung said sheepishly, looking for a paper bag.

“No, you don’t have to,” Seokjin smiled. “You have to think of your mental and emotional health as priority. But it will get things done faster if you do it right away.”

“I don’t really know what you’re telling me,” Taehyung narrowed his eyes at the older teacher.

“What I’m saying is that the decision is up to you,” Seokjin said with a thumbs up, before disappearing behind the walls of his cubicle.

Taehyung shook his head endearingly at his hyung. Even with all the heavy load that was given to him (on top of his current processings for a Ph.D.), the older man still was able to keep up his cheery aura and nature. It really is a surprise that the older man hasn’t broken down from the work he was getting, and especially since he seemed to work through it with a smile on his face.

Jinyoung did tell him that they weren’t going to meet until late at night, so Taehyung might as well stay at the office a bit and start marking. They weren’t going anywhere fancy so there was no need to go home and change out of his current outfit (just a black button down and a pair of black jeans). He might as well get a head start on marking those papers anyhow, because he in fact, did sign up for this.

It was already a few hours past the office hours, and Taehyung found himself alone inside the faculty for once. He checked his watch, and decided it was high time he left too, perhaps go grab a dinner before meeting up with Jinyoung and Jaebum.

Stepping outside the building, he was already contemplating whether or not he should go home. He had underestimated the weight of the papers he decided to take home, and there was only so much his shoulder could take.

Taehyung was already in the parking lot, to adjust the straps of his bag when spotted Seokjin on his way to his car. (The older man was at more than fifteen feet away but Taehyung could tell from the broad shoulders and height that it was Seokjin. Because seriously, there was only one person in campus with shoulders like _that_. And besides, there were no other people in the parking lot, save for a few loitering cats. The cars left there were probably owned by the remaining staff inside the campus, or even students who decided to stay overtime in the school library.) Taehyung was sure Seokjin wouldn’t hear him if he hollered, so he let it be. He had finally decided to take a cab home, and was already walking out the exit when he spotted another figure with Seokjin. It was a shorter man and Taehyung blinked, having to make sure that his eyes weren’t failing him (he was seriously afraid about his eyesight since his work revolved around him working in front of a screen more often usual). He thought it was Jeongguk, but the younger wasn’t that short, was he?

Yoongi wasn’t walking far behind the older man, and Taehyung was half-afraid that they were having another argument. (Taehyung had witnessed enough fights to be afraid that the next one could end up in a fist fight, and by them being alone in the parking lot after office hours didn’t actually help Taehyung in thinking otherwise.) He held his breathe and waited for the inevitable, but was surprised that nothing was actually happening. The two were looking like they were actually having a pleasant conversation, with Seokjin smiling and Yoongi sporting a small smile on his own. Taehyung was even more surprised when the two got to Seokjin’s car, and Yoongi opened the door to the passenger seat.

Taehyung didn’t really like assuming things, and he didn’t want to jump into conclusions without having enough evidence or reasons to. And Taehyung was overall confused with the whole thing that he didn’t know what to think, or even what to assume. Did the two teachers, famous for their history of never getting along, actually got along behind the scenes? Or was it a one-time truce?

Shaking his head, Taehyung decided it wasn’t his business. He didn’t like to delve into gossip or “tea” as Jinyoung did, because he can never find the courage to actually ask about it. And for some reason, Taehyung hid himself behind a car just as Seokjin was driving past him, directly towards the exit with Yoongi in the passenger seat.

Seriously, what would have been the implications if Taehyung had been caught or rather, had been spotted by the two? Taehyung felt like it was a secret, a secret that he had no business of finding out. Or maybe it wasn’t really secret. Either way, the need to hide was driven by the gut feeling Taehyung had about the whole thing. It felt like he couldn’t just approach Seokjin about the whole subject if ever found the courage to. But then again, Taehyung shook the thoughts away from his head and decided to call for a cab.

God-ssi wasn’t in his apartment when he got there, which was a surprise considering that the man had always appeared in his home every evening ever since he had first appeared to him almost a week ago. But Taehyung took it as a blessing. He hadn’t found a moment of peace for himself, and frankly, evenings were his favourite part of the day. He placed his bag on the couch and decided to change into more comfortable clothes. He exchanged the black button down for a looser white one and kept his jeans on. He cooked himself a simple dinner before grabbing his jacker and deeming himself ready to go. With one last look at the apartment (as if waiting for a familiar cat-eyed man to appear out of nowhere), he locked the door behind him.

Moonrise was a new establishment. And Taehyung was already liking it when he stepped down off the cab. It gave off a pleasant and homey aura. He was supposed to meet with the couple just outside the establishment, and he had spotted Jinyoung after scanning the place. Jinyoung had seen him too and nudged his companion. Taehyung smiled widely seeing Jaebum and the older man returned the smile.

“Wow, look at you!” Taehyung marvelled at his hyung who he hasn’t seen in a very long time. “You seem to be getting younger. Work doing alright for you?”

Jaebum just laughed as he pulled Taehyung into a hug. The older man was dressed casually, just the way Taehyung remembered his wardrobe would be like.

“You don’t look bad yourself, Tae,” Jaebum said, patting the younger on the shoulders. “God, it’s good to see you!”

Jinyoung, who had been unnoticed during this exchanged, hooked his arm around Jaebum’s elbow. “It’ll be a warmer reunion inside don’t you think?”

“Sorry babe,” Jaebum smiled at his boyfriend before turning to Taehyung. “Shall we get inside? The bar’s actually owned by an old friend of mine. Do you remember Sungjin-hyung?”

“Oh, is that the hyung who you let sleep in our dorm with the inflatable mattress?” Taehyung queried, certain that he’s heard of this Sungjin before.

Jaebum nodded with a laugh. “Yeah. I let him know we’re coming.”

The trio entered the small establishment and Taehyung was ready to have a good time. What he didn’t expect was for Jaebum and Jinyoung to get drunk off of a game of darts, and have Sungjin-hyung having to cut them off for the night.


	14. 14. Somewhere Between Friday and Saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Taehyung takes care of a drunk Park Jinyoung and Im Jaebum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys. My last update was on July. Sorry about that. I didn't expect this semester to just be so hectic and I apologize for the lack of updates for the past few months. But yeah, the semester just ended and we are now on break. I'm reaquanting myself with the story since God knows I haven't been thinking about it. Huhu, so sorry.
> 
> To have a recap, Taehyung agreed to have a drink with Jinyoung and Jaebum after the whole chaos that just happened in the week. (This story is so slow burn omg.)

**14.**

**Somewhere between Friday and Saturday**

Moonrise was just as warm in the inside as it looked from the outside. And Taehyung loved it since there wasn’t much people inside for the night. They had taken a table near the bar, and while Jaebum excused himself to order their drinks, Taehyung took the opportunity to look around the place. The dim orange lights, the soft indistinct chatter from other customers, and the soft jazz music playing in the background all gave off that warm feeling. There were photographs and old movie posters framed on the wall as well as vintage musical instruments in glass cases. Jinyoung had told him that the bar owner, Sungjin, had always been a music enthusiast and that he had been part of a band at some point before settling with the bar he had apparently gotten from a musician he used to work for.

Jaebum returned to their table with another man, tall and had ashy blonde hair styled up to show his forehead. Taehyung remembered him instantly and gave Sungjin a wide smile as they got reacquainted. Sungjin sat with them for a few minutes as Jaebum and Taehyung recounted that one night that the eldest member of their small group had needed a place to stay for the night.

“I have to admit, it was the biggest break-up that I’ve ever experienced,” Sungjin laughed at the memory as it was told by Jaebum. Jinyoung had listened attentively with a spark in his eyes. “But to be fair, she did move out of the apartment a week after.”

“But I still can’t believe she kicked you out of your own apartment,” Jinyoung laughed.

Sungjin shrugged. “I was just unlucky, I guess.”

The older man had to leave to go get their drinks and returned with an extra round of glasses, claiming that “it was on the house.”

The night had been going very pleasant, in Taehyung’s opinion. They were talking about memories from college, and about their new jobs. They cracked a few laughs about the whole photography situation Taehyung and Jinyoung got themselves into. Jaebum had apparently been doing well at the company he was working at. He was currently working on an album for the company’s first group debut, and Jaebum was both excited and nervous about it.

It was a pretty chill evening, that is, until a rowdy group of young women came and took monopoly over the recreational space of the bar (there was a pool table, a darts corner, and even a few game boards stacked in some corner). Sungjin had been sparking up a conversation with one member of the group and Jaebum, having drunk enough to feel a buzz, tried to play wingman (though no one asked him to and Sungjin seemed like he was capable of winning the girl’s number one way or another without any help at all) and decided to play a few games with the group. Jinyoung had joined not long after, and Taehyung just watched by the bar as Jaebum and Jinyoung teamed up against a pair of the girls. They were playing well at the first few minutes of the game, until Jaebum miscalculated his aim and had been forced to take a shot with Jinyoung. It spiralled from there and Taehyung and Sungjin exchanged worried glances as the pair took another shot, their newly made friends cheering them on.

Funnily enough, with one last exchange of looks, the two had silently agreed to cut the pair off. The girls didn’t seem to mind it, though they pouted and groaned when Taehyung cut in with the excuse of needing to take his friends back home. It had taken Jaebum and Jinyoung being disgustingly in love with each other (hands shamelessly everywhere and mouths making noises nobody wanted to hear) for the group to relent and let Sungjin call a cab for the two. A few of Sungjin’s waiters had helped bring the pair to the bathroom when they ultimately had to vomit at the same time. The group left not long after and Sungjin may or may not have scored some digits before their departure.

It wasn’t really Taehyung’s first time to take care of drunken people. But Jaebum and Jinyoung couldn’t take their hands off each other even if they had some vomit and alcohol staining their clothes.

“I’ll take them outside for some fresh air,” Taehyung looked at Sungjin who was already busy tidying up the place. It was probably already past midnight.

“You need some help?” the older asked but Taehyung shook his head. The couple was already sleepy at this point and Taehyung knew he could handle them both. All he had to do was wait for the cab anyway. He’d just sit them down in the pavement or something.

Successfully getting the couple outside and sat down on one of the benches outside, Taehyung was sure that they didn’t think about getting drunk tonight. At that point of the night, Jinyoung was cuddling closely to his boyfriend. Jaebum on the meantime, had seemed to sober up a bit as he let Jinyoung press close to him with a hand weaving through his hair.

“You okay?” Taehyung pressed a bottle of water he had gotten from Sungjin towards Jaebum and Jinyoung who had already fallen asleep.

“I guess so?” Jaebum said, taking the bottle and drinking slowly. “I’m so sorry you have to do all this.”

Taehyung chuckled. “It’s fine. Consider it as payback for all those nights you had to pick me up from parties.”

Jaebum laughed as well. “We’ve come so far, haven’t we?”

“I guess so,” Taehyung laughed. He felt a bit of a buzz himself. He was in between the numbness and the feeling and it felt nice. “Who would’ve thought that this is where we’d end up back in college?”

“You mean, drunk and covered in vomit at a pavement?” Jaebum asked. The two erupted in laughter but had to cover their mouths when Jinyoung stirred in his sleep.

“Who would’ve thought you’d fall in love with an actual person and not a cat this time,” Taehyung mused. Jaebum smiled at his dongsaeng. It wasn’t meant to be a scorn, in fact, Taehyung sounded genuinely happy for him. “I mean, I always knew you’d go and achieve a lot, hyung. You worked too hard not to be happy.”

“Thank you, Taehyung,” Jaebum said, reaching over as best as he can to pat Taehyung on the shoulder. “But it sounds to me that you’re not entirely happy right now. Is everything all right?”

Taehyung sighed. “The thing is I don’t know. I mean, I know at this moment that I’m happy. I’m pretty content about everything…well mostly anyway. But I can’t say I’m happy in general. I’m not sad either. It just feels like something’s missing.”

Jaebum nodded. “That was what I felt before I met Jinyoung.”

Taehyung looked at his hyung. “I don’t think it’s that.”

Jaebum shrugged (or shrugged as best as he could since Jinyoung was leaning against him). “Who knows? It may not be like that, or it may be. The point is, your life doesn’t stop here. You ground yourself too much in the present you keep forgetting that there’s still a tomorrow. You’re too anxious about the future, and I remember you saying something like that when I was breaking down about a major final.”

“I don’t remember being too optimistic,” Taehyung laughed. “But thanks, hyung. That could be lyrics for a new single right there.”

Jaebum chuckled. “Maybe.”

Although Taehyung wasn’t too much of a fan of optimism, it was good to have an occasional dose, and having it come from a dear long friend it felt even better to have an excuse to feel optimistic.

The cab came by minutes later and Taehyung helped Jaebum carry Jinyoung into the vehicle. He bid them goodbye and watched them disappear onto the street. He stepped into Moonrise to bid Sungjin a goodbye and to tell him that their friends had already gone home, only to find Sungjin already cozying up with the same girl he was trying to pick up earlier in the night.

“Oh, sorry to interrupt,” Taehyung said, smiling politely at the girl who had a very pretty smile. “Jaebum-hyung and Jinyoung-hyung got into a cab already, and I’m about to head home as well.”

Sungjin walked toward him to give him a hug. “That’s good, thanks for keeping an eye out of those two.”

“Yep, that was an experience,” Taehyung said in mock relief.

“Well, get home safe now, and come by often, alright? With a friend this time,” Sungjin said. Taehyung just rolled his eyes at the implication of ‘friend’, but he nodded at his hyung and bid him a final goodbye. He bowed at the girl as well, thanked her for giving him and his friends a good time. (He didn’t get to ask for her name, but if things hit off between her and Sungjin, he had a feeling he’d be seeing her again.)

He stepped into the cold again, and he revelled in it. He decided to walk around a bit since he didn’t feel like going home for a while. With hands in his pockets and humming random songs, Taehyung walked the not-so-quiet streets. He wasn’t really expecting anything else to happen to his night (it was nearing 2 in the morning), when he caught a loud laughter from a distance.

Taehyung paused for a moment and smiled at the thought that since it was Friday everyone just wanted to drink away. He couldn’t blame them really. Life was hard.

The laughter was getting louder, only meaning that Taehyung was getting closer to the source, or the source was getting closer to him. It was only when he turned to a corner when he nearly collided with another body—or rather bodies.

“Whoops! Gotta watch where you’re going there buddy!” a female voice cackled, and before Taehyung registered everything, he was face to face with Jeongguk.

“Taehyung,” Jeongguk exclaimed. Taehyung didn’t really mind the lack of honorific. He didn’t really expect to bump into Jeongguk, especially at 2 in the morning, at this part of town.

“Jeongguk,” Taehyung stared. The younger man was carrying a woman piggyback style and his rider wasn’t particularly fond of the sudden stop.

“I was—I was just getting a friend home,” Jeongguk said, his cheeks were red and his ears were beginning to turn the same color. Taehyung wasn’t really sure if it was from the cold or from something else.

“Gukkiiiiieeeee,” the girl whined, jumping in her place.

“Hold still, damn it, Dahyun,” Jeongguk scolded gently, readjusting his grip on her thighs.

Taehyung ended up helping him take the girl home. She lived nearby and Jeongguk was already beginning to tire from carrying her from a considerable distance. He had apparently been carrying her for more than ten blocks away. (Taehyung had to swallow the thought of Jeongguk being able to carry Taehyung. With his thighs around the younger’s waist. With his back against the wall. Damn, Taehyung was thirsty as fuck especially now that he had gotten a few drinks in his system.)

Taehyung recognized Dahyun as one of his students last semester. She was a theatre major, if he wasn’t mistaken, and she also taken an elective course under Taehyung. She did pretty well, and she was one of the students who asked a few questions (besides the philosophy majors anyway.)

“Having a good night before finals?” Taehyung asked, once he and Jeongguk were struggling to carry Dahyun up the stairs towards her apartment where her roommates were waiting for her.

Jeongguk laughed. “Guess you could say that. I had all the intentions of getting shit-faced tonight.”

“How the wheels have turned,” Taehyung smiled.

They didn’t say anything between that struggle in the staircase to the walk to her apartment where her roommates were already waiting in the hallway.

“Oh my God, seonsangnim!” a girl, Taehyung could recognize her as Jihyo from earlier. “Jeongyeon, help me.”

Her other roommate with shorter hair instantly grabbed Dahyun from their hands. The two had proceeded to apologize profusely, bowing especially low to Taehyung.

When the doors were closed and Dahyun was officially taken care of, Jeongguk sighed and stretched his back.

“Now,” Taehyung said, grabbing the attention of the younger. “How do I take _you_ home?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway. Here's the first update in months. And to make up for the lack of updates, I am going to open the comments section for a q and a. So ask away whatever questions you have in mind about the story, about the characters, about the author, and I'll answer them in a special chapter or whatevah.
> 
> So yeah. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :3


	15. 15. Saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which they discuss soulmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year people! I hope you're having a wonderful one so far.
> 
> This chapter is a little longer than my usual word count, but here ya go.

**15.**

**Saturday**

Taehyung blushed instantly at the dual implication of what he just said. Jeongguk turned red in return, staring blankly at the older man. (Taehyung had no idea what came to him, why those words came out of his mouth. He cursed his slight drunkenness, because of course he was going to make things awkward.)

Taehyung cleared his throat. “Um, do I need to call you a cab, I mean,” he saved. “Do you need a ride home?”

Jeongguk shook himself out of his stupor, and gestured the negative. “I honestly don’t want to go home yet.”

“Oh,” Taehyung breathed. He honestly hadn’t expected that answer. There was an implication in Jeongguk’s words, and Taehyung didn’t want to trust his slightly inebriated brain to process them. He couldn’t just ask the boy if he wanted to hang out inside his apartment instead. That would send a message that Taehyung wasn’t ready to explain nor ready to disclose. Other than that, it was going all too fast. Whatever that ‘pull’ was doing, it wasn’t really rational at this point. Though admittedly, Taehyung didn’t want to go home yet and he sure wanted to bring Jeongguk up on that implication.

“So umm…want to grab some food?” Taehyung asked, finding courage to look at the young man in the eye again. That was meeting halfway, Taehyung thought. It was safe and it wasn’t assuming. (He had been thirsting all this time without even knowing for sure if Jeongguk thought of him _that_ way.)

The younger looked at him this time with a small smile on his face. “That sounds about nice right now.”

They ended up in a family diner which opened 24 hours a day not that far away from Dahyun’s apartment building. There weren’t a lot of customers in the establishment and there was only one waiter behind the counter. He was looking really sleepy even when he tried his best to put on a smile as he handed the two a menu. Taehyung couldn’t really blame him. It was almost 3 in the morning and he had to admit he was feeling a bit drowsy himself.

“Do you want some coffee?” the young waiter asked.

Taehyung nodded. “Yeah sure, how ‘bout you Gukkie?” he asked, turning to his companion who shook his head with a smile. The easy slip of the nickname was unconscious and unnoticed by the older man.

The waiter nodded and left to retrieve cups from the counter. “Hyung always told me I shouldn’t have coffee at hours like this,” Jeongguk said with a smile.

“Well that sounds right. Though knowing Seokjin-hyung, he’d be drinking coffee at this time anyway,” Taehyung grinned.

“That’s why he tells me to do as he says and not as he does,” Jeongguk smiled. “But I can’t blame him, he’s been really busy these days.”

“It must be hard seeing him like that,” Taehyung commented, providing a small smile at the boy who came back with cups and a pot of coffee. “Is it okay to leave the pot?” Taehyung asked sheepishly after they watched him pour the coffee.

“Oh, sure,” the waiter nodded. “Let me know if you guys have decided on anything. I’ll just go wake the cook,” he chuckled.

“We’ll take our time then,” Taehyung said in understanding.

Jeongguk was looking at him when the young waiter left and disappeared into a door behind the counter. Taehyung blinked at him in question. “You’re really polite you know,” Jeongguk said.

“That’s not a bad thing,” Taehyung said as a matter of fact.

“Not necessarily. I’m just surprised how friendly you actually are. No wonder almost the whole campus has a crush on you,” Jeongguk tantalized.

Taehyung scoffed, ignoring the slight heat rushing on his face. “I don’t think so.” He mixed in the sugar (lots of spoonfuls, so much for watching his sugar) and the creamer into his coffee to distract himself momentarily.

“If you say so, hyung. Jin-hyung has always said you were too kind for your own good.”

It took a second for Taehyung to understand that he was referring to Seokjin-hyung. He smiled involuntarily of the endearing nickname. “Well, Seokjin-hyung is also one who would find every reason to be polite.”

Jeongguk shrugged, placing the menu flat on the table. “The only difference between you and hyung is that he’s shamelessly narcissistic.”

Taehyung had to laugh. It echoed around the mostly empty diner and he had to slap a hand on his mouth in realization. They dissolved nonetheless in soft laughter and chuckles. Jeongguk had a really nice laugh. “What would your brother say if he knew we were gossiping about him behind his back?”

“He’s used to it,” Jeongguk dismissed, still chuckling.

The waiter stepped out of what they can only assume was the kitchen and Taehyung was suddenly reminded that they had to order. “What are you having?” he asked the boy across the table.

“Perhaps the special. I’m actually kind of hungry,” Jeongguk said, touching his nape. “But order anything you want, hyung, this is on me. I have to pay you back for helping me with Dahyun awhile ago.”

“Ah, I can’t say no to free food,” he smiled mischievously. “But really, finals week isn’t until another week.”

“But everyone still had a few deadlines before that, hence the drinking,” Jeongguk shrugged. “And if you don’t mind me asking. How’d you feel about the whole shooting thing? It didn’t freak you out or anything, did it?”

“No,” Taehyung shook his head. “It was unexpected to say the least, but it sounded intriguing, you know?”

Jeongguk just nodded. “What were you doing late this night, hyung?”

“Well, just as you guys were drinking away before the wave of heavy requirements and deadlines, I was out just chilling with a few friends of mine,” Taehyung smiled. “Met with an old friend from college. Things got out of hand a bit.”

“You don’t seem like the heavy drinker type though,” Jeongguk mused.

“I like a drink every now and then, but no I’m not usually a heavy drinker,” Taehyung said, reminiscing over the recent episode just a few nights ago with soju bottles and beer cans, and with the ever patient Minjae. “Only when necessary,” he chuckled.

The waiter came by a few minutes later to take their orders and despite Jeongguk’s offer, Taehyung had only ordered enough to satiate his hunger. He really didn’t want to be extravagant on a college student’s budget, relative or no to a university faculty.

“I have a random question,” Taehyung said after a while. Jeongguk had busied himself on his phone this time, albeit texting his older brother of his whereabouts. Whether or not he said he was with him, Taehyung can only wonder. Jeongguk looked up from his phone, doe eyes looking tired but attentive.

“What is it hyung?” Jeongguk locked his phone and set it down the table.

“This is going to sound really weird, and I have to admit I still feel a bit drunk,” Taehyung smiled in apology. “But yeah, if that’s okay with you.”

Jeongguk shrugged. “You’re just human after all, Taehyung-hyung.”

There was something with the way he said his name that caused a slight shiver in Taehyung’s spine. It was a good feeling and he had the sudden urge to have him say his name over and over again. It sounded slightly foreign, but before he could anymore distracted, he decided to play with the rims of his coffee cup.

“There’s this old worn-out story in Plato’s _The Symposium_ ,” Taehyung started, glancing at Jeongguk to see if he was listening. There was a slight frown on the boy’s face, but Taehyung had his attention nonetheless. He hoped that Jeongguk didn’t get the feeling as if he was getting an impromptu lecture or lesson, but here it goes.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but the story goes that in the beginning humans not only had both the sexual organs of male and female, but they also had two sets of a face, a pair of hands and legs. So imagine like a human blob with two faces, four hands and four legs,” Taehyung smiled a bit at the image in his mind.

“These humans were fast and they were incredibly powerful. Powerful enough so it seems to make the gods anxious over their own dominion,” he continued. “Can you guess what the gods did?”

Jeongguk tilted his head to the side. “Downplaying the threat, I guess? Cut them in half?”

Taehyung smiled, like a teacher would if a student got an answer right. Jeongguk smiled as well, having guessed right. “They were indeed cut in half,” Taehyung said. “Zeus, the Greek king of the Gods commanded his son Apollo to modify the humans in a way that they would know that there was something missing. Their faces were turned towards where they were cut in half. They were miserable of course, they longed for the other halves of themselves because they wanted to grow together. Zeus took pity of course and gave them a way to become one, one way or another, by positioning their sexual organs to the front.”

Jeongguk narrowed his eyes at Taehyung with a playful glint to his eyes. Taehyung just shook his head at him with a playful grin on his part.

“So humans are just left to wander around to look for their missing halves?” Jeongguk asked, leaning his chin on his palm. “I’ve heard of this before. Jin-hyung told it to me before he went on a lecture on birds and the bees.”

Taehyung was suddenly reminded that Seokjin-hyung did say he had to take care of his brother at a very early age because of a premature tragedy concerning their parents. He smiled at the thought of his older co-worked though, just going on a philosophical story about soulmates and then suddenly going on a tirade on sexual education.

“But that story seems to imply that soulmates are only for straight people,” Jeongguk said.

“It’s a theory,” Taehyung explained. “And you have to remember that even the Greeks pleasured themselves in homosexual relations. You have to take the story not too literally. What does it want to say? What is the essence of the story?”

His companion shrugged. “Still, what does this have anything to do with what you want to ask me, hyung?”

Ah yes. “Well, do you believe that you have another half of you which you have yet to find? Do you believe that you have a soulmate?”

Jeongguk blinked a few times at the question and made a noise at the back of his throat as if he hadn’t considered asking himself that question before.

“That is pretty random, hyung,” he chuckled nonchalantly. “But I honestly don’t.”

Taehyung gulped. “And why not?”

“Not to be a skeptic, hyung. But from your story, the whole soulmate thing is vague. You can talk about different kinds of love and soulmates here, because surely romantic love isn’t the only thing that can complete you, metaphorically speaking.”

Taehyung nodded. He had heard of the point raised during one of his classes.

“And technically, you can go on living without finding your other half. You might not feel as powerful or fast, but you get to live either way. And I know this might seem fallacious, but there wasn’t anything said about the consequences of meeting someone who isn’t your soulmate.”

Taehyung shook his head in amusement but didn’t want to say anything yet. “That is fallacious, what else?”

“Well, to be really honest hyung, it sounds like bullshit,” he said lightly, though the contempt was there. “And the whole idea of getting complete happiness from a predestined source is unfair. Can’t you choose who to love?”

Unfortunately, we don’t, something in Taehyung’s mind echoed. But somehow he didn’t really mind.

It hurt a bit to think that Jeongguk didn’t believe in soulmates. Although it wasn’t his fault, and Taehyung wasn’t entirely sure why Jeongguk couldn’t know, it did feel like his whole existence was being invalidated and dismissed as petty myth and legends.

“I don’t mean to disrespect though, if it is what you believe in hyung,” Jeongguk added hurriedly.

“It’s fine, Jeongguk-ah. I can’t say I believe in it entirely anyway.” Liar. “It wouldn’t be that bad, you know, having a soulmate, if you think about it,” Taehyung added.

“It isn’t. But how do you know you really love that person if it were just plain destiny? That just means that the love you feel isn’t love at all because it’s been handed to you even before you were aware of what love is,” Jeongguk huffed. “It sounds more like an obligation.”

Taehyung couldn’t help but nod because really, he had been thinking about that when God-ssi had told him all about the soulmate fiasco initially. He couldn’t help but agree, and he was really impressed at Jeongguk being able to make salient points. Taehyung can officially say that Seokjin-hyung and Jeongguk were a pair of dangerous siblings. (With that kind of intellect, talent _and_ looks. These siblings are unreal.)

But it still saddens Taehyung that Jeongguk thought that way. It was certainly going to make things harder if push comes to shove.

“You don’t believe in soulmates, but that doesn’t mean you’re completely skeptical about the whole romance thing, does it?” Taehyung asked, suddenly thankful for an opportunity to broach the topic. God-ssi did mention that Jeongguk would have fallen in love with someone else already. But he had to be honest and say that he didn’t pick up any hints on it (either that hasn’t happened yet and God-ssi had a miscalculation and Taehyung can easily swoop in like a vulture or Jeongguk was just very good at being private). He hoped though that this random talk about soulmates and now about relationships won’t put Jeongguk off the wrong way, that was the least thing Taehyung wanted to do when he had a task at hand.

Jeongguk let out a breathy chuckle, an undeniable grin on his face. “No. I’m a romantic just like the next person.”

“Oh, tea,” Taehyung smiled. “Your girlfriend is a lucky one then,” he casually said.

“Oh I’m currently not in a relationship though,” Jeongguk blushed.

“And why is that? You certainly don’t lack in the looks department,” Taehyung grinned at the deeper flush the younger boy was sporting.

“Just no time, I guess? And the people around me are more into focusing on finishing their degree. I mean I’m the same way, but,” Jeongguk coughed, as if trying to wish away the heat evidently spreading all over his face and ears. “That doesn’t mean I don’t catch feelings.”

“Anyone I know?” Taehyung asked after a few seconds of silence. Even without God-ssi’s warnings, Jeongguk had the aura of someone who was in love. The dreamy eyes, the unconscious smile, the soft tone in his voice—the signs could only tell one thing.

Jeongguk looked at him, his eyes a little wide at his obviousness, but he just smiled and shrugged.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, hyung?” Jeongguk leaned against his palm.

Taehyung forced a laugh and hoped it didn’t sound off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3


End file.
